Tools & principles I am most passionate about

Recently I have been looking around for a new job and have an interview coming up with a company I have a lot of time for (naming no names because I am a mysterious character). One of the things they have asked me to have a think about before our first meeting is what tools / technologies / ideas / principles / things I am most passionate about.

I thought it would make a great blog post, especially since if I don't have a document to go off I am likely to get so excited that I only ramble about one thing instead of all the things!

This is not by any means a complete list, but here are some of the main things that really get me going at the moment!

Tools I am passionate about

• Vi - I have recently started using Vi full time again and really trying hard to do things the Vi way, I am really loving how flexible and powerful it is as a tool.
• FireFox - I love the Mozilla ethos and in particular their powerful web browser. An Open Web is the only Web!

Disclaimer - Being too tool focused could potentially lead to you missing out on things, keep an open mind, for example I regularly jump into other browsers for a week or so, just to see what they have to offer!

Technologies I am passionate about

• Ruby - The language is so clean and expressive, you can't help but get excited when you solve problems with it!
• JavaScript - JavaScript pretty much is the language of the web, it allows me to really quickly make amazing experiences for people. Particularly loving the awesomeness of [Backbone.js](/review-backbone-js-patterns-and-best-practice/) at the moment, good old MVC style sensibilities in the front end? Mega!
• HTML - A lot of folk see HTML as a necessary evil in order to get their wonderful backend code to display something, but I see it as the foundation blocks for everything awesome on the web, a great command of HTML can help visually impaired people read the web - how amazing is that!

Disclaimer - You should never care as much about the technology as you do the problem to be solved, just because you know Ruby doesn't mean Ruby is the most appropriate thing for everything!

Ideas I am passionate about

• Openness - Sharing ideas, learnings, thoughts and feelings is the only way we as an industry or even as a species can grow - putting yourself out there and making yourself vulnerable is massively important to me.
• Getting and Giving Feedback Early - I am a massive believer in asking for and giving out feedback as early as possible, things are generally so much easier to correct if you get the right guidance as soon as possible.

Principles I am passionate about

• Test Driven Development - The small amount of time it takes you to articulate the problem in code gives you time to think of the solution that will satisfy the requirement as quickly as possible, amazing stuff! This software development principle has made me a better programmer.
• The 80/20 rule - I am a massive believer in doing the smallest amount of work possible to achieve the biggest results, I think by sticking rigorously to this you can stay productive a good percentage of the time.
• Following Best Practice - I don't like to get tied to one best practice because that changes all the time, I prefer to follow the principle of learning from your peers and establishing a best practice to follow.

Things I am passionate about

• FirefoxOS - I love the idea of a web based operating system, it is such a huge idea and so liberating! I really really hope it takes off, not least because I love developing for the platform.
• The Internet of Things - This is a bit of a buzzphrase, but I love the idea we are getting more and more connected to the world around us, it can make our lives easier and give us insights into things we didn't think possible, for example passively monitoring your step count over the day and comparing it to how well you sleep at night. Amazing.
• League of Legends - It is an amazing game and it is eating up way too much of my time!

What are you most passionate about?

Thanks so much for reading what I am passionate about, I would love to know what you are passionate about - let me know in the comments, or better yet, write your own blog post and link me up!