Crochet and software development don’t seem like natural companions. If you had told junior-developer me that crochet would eventually influence how I approach software development, I probably would have scoffed. At first glance, the two have very little in common. One involves yarn and hooks. The other involves code and pull requests. Yet the longer I’ve spent doing both, the more I’ve realised that many of the habits that make me a better crocheter have also made me a better developer. Don’t Rush One of the first lessons crochet taught me was that speed and progress are not necessarily the same thing. If I rush through a row or round, there’s a good chance that I’ll miss a stitch somewhere along the way. The mistake might not be immediately obvious, but several rows later I’ll find myself wondering why the piece no longer looks quite right. Software development has a…
Life was never meant to have a template. This much I do know now. When I sat down to write this post, I had reached a point in my life (both the professional and personal) where a rebuild of sorts seemed well overdue. Life had gotten comfortable. Predictable, even. On weekdays, I’d wake up, turn on my work laptop and get to coding. At the end of the day, I turn off my laptop, fix dinner and do my nighttime routine. On weekends and days off, I’d do my morning routine before either heading into the city for a day out (if it was a Saturday) or getting the life admin tasks sorted (if it was a Sunday). Even a workday had its own steady rhythm. Mondays were when most of the meetings were scheduled. With a few later in the week if needed. Daily stand up meetings were a…