Something he wrote that I found especially interesting was this:

A section of Laney’s book maps out the human brain and explains how neuro-transmitters follow different dominant paths in the nervous systems of Introverts and Extroverts. If the science behind the book is correct, it turns out that Introverts are people who are over-sensitive to Dopamine, so too much external stimulation overdoses and exhausts them. Conversely, Extroverts can’t get enough Dopamine, and they require Adrenaline for their brains to create it. Extroverts also have a shorter pathway and less blood-flow to the brain. The messages of an Extrovert’s nervous system mostly bypass the Broca’s area in the frontal lobe, which is where a large portion of contemplation takes place.

Yup, I definitely need to get that book. Interesting stuff indeed. The author of the review also put together a nice list of 10 myths about introverts, which I found quite interesting. And I think that’s probably something everybody should know. So, I will copy them to this post so that I know where to find them in case they disappear from the source

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

What do you think? If you’re an introvert, does it sound about right? If you’re an extrovert, do you think it would be helpful to know this?

• This Developer’s Life
  Great talks and stories from the lives of developers.
• Stuff you should know
  Awesome podcast where they take up rather random subjects which are usually a lot more fascinating than you think

That’s it for now. Will add more later probably. In the mean time, what’s your favorite podcast? Please share in the comments below!

Book cover

The book is written by Kent Beck and explains the basics about TDD. It does this pretty well, step by step, by example, just like the title says. The book also talks some about TDD in a more general sense. What it is, how it works, why it works, et cetera.

From the back-cover:

Readers will learn to:

• Solve complicated tasks, beginning with the simple and proceeding to the more complex.
• Write automated tests before coding.
• Grow a design organically by refactoring to add design decisions one at a time.
• Create tests for more complicated logic, including reflection and exceptions.
• Use patterns to decide what tests to write.
• Create tests using xUnit, the architecture at the heart of many programmer-oriented testing tools.

It pretty much kept the promises The only part I didn’t really like about this book was that I found much of the coding kind of messy. Could be because the languages used in the examples are Java and Python, which I don’t really like that much syntax-wise. An even more important reason though, is that I just finished reading The Art of Unit Testing So, I suppose I have become a bit demanding when it comes to cleanliness when coding and writing unit-tests. I suppose that is a good thing (I do however not claim in any way that the code I currently write is extremely clean in any way! But I do strive for it to be so ;)

I can really recommend this book to anyone who are curious to get familiar with TDD. I certainly see the value of doing TDD and is in the process of trying to incorporate it into my development habits.

1. Red — Write a little test that doesn’t work, and perhaps doesn’t even compile at first.
2. Green — Make the test work quicky, committing whatever sins necessary in the process.
3. Refactor — Eliminate all of the duplication created in merely getting the test to work.

Red/green/refactor — the TDD mantra.

You can get it at Amazon, and probably a lot of other places too as it is a pretty well-known book.

The last book I finished is called The Art of Unit Testing, and I am so happy that I stumbled over that book. Spring 2009 I was at a developer conference called NDC 2009 (Norwegian Developer Conference) and it was really great. If you have the time, you should go to that website and have a look. You can watch most of the talks there online. Anyways, the second day I attended a series of talks about Test Driven Development with a great speaker called Roy Osherove. I learned a bunch and decided that TDD looks like something I should try to learn. However, I had a big problem. I didn’t even know how to write a test. And doing TDD without knowing how to write a test is kind of difficult… to say the least…

Anyways, this Roy Osherove person advertised that he had just finished a book about pretty much exactly that; writing unit tests. So, I decided to get myself a copy of it.

It was great! Seriously learned a lot. It covers the following subjects (yes, that would be the table of contents).

1. The basics of unit testing
2. A first unit test
3. Using stubs to break dependencies
4. Interaction testing using mock objects
5. Isolation (mock object) frameworks
6. Test hierarchies and organization
7. The pillars of good tests
8. Integrating unit testing into the organization
9. Design and testability (Appendix A)
10. Extra tools and frameworks (Appendix B)

It is only 283 pages long (including the appendixes) and a pretty quick and easy read. Which I like. I got sucked in, and it was finished fast. Probably should read it again some time But anyways: I previously did not even know how to write a single unit test in any language. Now I do

You can get it from for example Manning (who is the publisher) or from Amazon. I would probably get it from Amazon since they seem to have a 34% discount currently… Except I already have it, of course

If you want to learn how to do unit testing, I can recommend it with all my heart

Oh, by the way, when you buy this book, you even get a free eBook version of it! Which is totally brilliant, since then you can have the book and read it at home, but you can also for example put the eBook version on your netbook and read while travelling. Awesome all the way Wish more publishers or authors (or whoever decides) were like that…

Two of the many very interesting paragraphs from it:

There are three desires I find written so deeply into my heart I know now I can no longer disregard them without losing my soul. They are core to who and what I am and yearn to be. I gaze into boyhood, I search the pages of literature, I listen carefully to many, many men, and I am convinced these desires are universal, a clue into masculinity itself. They may be misplaced, forgotten, or misdirected, but in the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. I want o you think of the films men love, the things they do with their free time, and especially the aspirations of little boys and see if I am not right on this.

There are also three desires that I have found essential to a woman’s heart, which are not entirely different from a man’s and yet they remain distinctly feminine. Not every woman wants a battle to fight, but every woman years to fought for. Listen to the longing of a woman’s heart: She wants to be more than noticed—she wants to be wanted. … Every woman also wants an adventure to share. … So many men make the mistake of thinking that the woman is the adventure. But that is where the relationship immediately goes downhill. A woman doesn’t want to be the adventure; she wants to be caught up into something greater than herself. … And finally, every woman wants to have a beauty to unveil. Not to conjure, but to unveil. Most women feel the pressure to be beautiful from very young, but that is not what I speak of. There is also a deep desire to simply and truly be the beauty, and be delighted in.

OK, actually that last one is three paragraphs in the book. But tried to get the similar three points that was mentioned for men (And for men they are each elaborated in three sub chapters).

Aaaanyways, very interesting book. You should definitely read it, especially if you are a guy. Could be interesting if you are a woman too of course, but I can only speak for myself, who is a guy. For women there is actually a similar book called Captivating, which I have heard is very good as well. I haven’t read it yet though… but I will ;)

Highly recommend them! Get them from Amazon, they are not even expensive

• Wild at Heart
• Captivating

What do you think about this matter? Did it sound about right? What is in the innermost parts of your heart?