Stoicism: A software developers guide.

Many of life's issues are already solved. That means we can learn incredible lessons from the past ... here are my top 5 ideas from the stoic philosophy and how you can leverage them too.

Most problems have happened before. If we search back in history far enough, we’ll find someone overcoming a problem we now have. Stoic philosophy (Stoicism), when studied can give us many of the answers to problems we already face. I am only a beginner when it comes to Stoicism. But I’ve already had benefits leveraging some of the learnings from their teachings.
 
Rather than spending your time reading the works and figuring out how they apply to you. I’ve distilled 5 of the top lessons, from the perspective of a software developer.

Changing Javascript framework: 4 questions to ask yourself before doing it.

With new framework options always on the horizon it pays to make sure our upgrades are well justified. New frameworks don't solve systemic issues. To make sure we're upgrading for the right reasons, we should ask the right questions.

Javascript framework

“What good does it do you to go overseas, to move from city to city? If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.” Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
In this letter, Seneca was highlighting that running from a problem, does not solve it. You must be careful to understand that where you’re running from might not be the problem. The problem might even be you (in this case, your team/business). Before we make that leap and change where we are, we need to address ourselves. And our own potential shortcomings.
 
There comes a time with our software teams where a thought flashes through our mind: “Should we change framework?”

Does your agile team have a “learning disability”?

It has been argued that the best determinate of a businesses success is based on it's ability to adapt and learn. Whilst building a "learning organisation" sounds desirable, it is distinctly abstract. We're going to look at 3 concrete "learning disabilities" that prevent teams from operating optimally.

The term learning disability is taken from Senge’s The Fifth DisciplineIn the book, Senge discusses how to transform organisations into what he calls “Learning organisations”. Organisations that are quick to pick up new skills and responsive to change. To become one we must recognise what Senge calls “learning disabilities”.
 
Learning Disabilities are behavioural traits that teams exhibit. These traits cloud our ability to learn and grow as teams. Out of the seven total three, in particular, I know will resonate for developers.