DeliberatePractice

When Dave Thomas introduced the idea of code katas it was in the context that in order to get better at something, you need to practice. Raw talent only gets you so far. Various theories of learning (particularly those proposed by Dr K. Anders Ericsson) suggest that DeliberatePractice over a long period of time is at the heart of attaining expertise.

DeliberatePractice is not the same as experience gained while doing your job. It is when you actually seek out experiences that will stretch your skills just the right amount, and give you feedback that enables you to learn. I think that it takes a great deal of self discipline to sit down by yourself and try to do a code Kata, and it can be difficult to get good quality feedback without someone else present or at least available to review your code afterwards.

Practice we must! As Ron Jeffries points out in his article titled “Practice: That’s What We Do” ( xprogramming.com/xpmag/jatPractice.htm ), “But what changes people is what they do, not what they read. How many diet books have I read? Am I thinner?…”

Going to a CodingDojo helps enormously because it’s fun to go and socialise and meet other geeks, which means you actually do it, rather than just intending to sit down an evening and do a kata instead of watching TV. At the meeting, when you’re doing a kata together you challenge one another and you have to learn to accept criticism and defend your ideas. [high availability] You get feedback on not just the code you produce, but your coding technique. You get exposed to other people’s neat tricks with the language and editor and see other ways to code. If you already work in a team in your job then that may not be so new to you, but here it is with a different bunch of people, in a very safe environment. The code produced at the end may be preserved on a wiki somewhere but you’re still not going to be maintaining it in 5 years time. You get to try the same Kata again the next time if you think you can do better.