#084 - Lessons learned from The Programmer's Brain

This week we talk with AJ Kerrigan (Twitter / LinkedIn) about Felienne Hermans' The Programmer's Brain, an important book we recommend every developer should read (at least once).

Structure:
After quickly discussing the gist of the book, we dive into some of the concepts it teaches:
- Chunkability: for faster reading and comprehension of code.
- Germane load: the work required to encode thoughts to long-term memory, and the value of "worked examples".
- Semantic wave: needing to oscillate (as a teacher) between abstract and concrete as you learn.
- Cognitive dimensions of codebases and tradeoffs in code you write and tools you use.
- Practicing code reading (Code Reading Clubs): entry points and use of a debugger.

Useful links:
- PyBites #082 on type hints
- A Case Study in Refactoring Python
- CodeTour
- Annotated Underscore.js Source Code
- Inception Layers and Interruptability
- Many More Much Smaller Steps
- Code Reading Club
- Writing Excuses
- Pybites platform (check out the forums!)
- And a special shoutout to the Teaching Python podcast as well.
- Book AJ is reading: An Unintended Voyage (complete Pybites podcast reading list)