I encountered a question online recently about building context quickly, and whilst I thought of the bootstrapping post I made before, I also wanted to take a chance to explore how that plays into continuous practice. I started journaling as a researcher to remind me of all the dead ends and configurations I’d tried. Although I’ve not been entirely consistent in journalling (or sometimes blogging) each day and each new discovery, I think it’s a good practice for technologists to develop. Think out loud, even if it’s to yourself.

When building context on a new project, for example, I often find it useful, as part of discovery, to note what the client (or in very rare circumstances the written requirements) says it does, as well as what it actually does.

And always, always, journal everything. How to get it running locally, how to release, who knows what, who has the admin rights,… Anything that takes more than 2 minutes to figure out.

Sometimes that journal will take the form of shared content to help the next person join the project (and like all good scouts we should leave a place better than we found it), but the important bit is to write it for yourself. 80% of the time future you won’t need it, but that 20% makes the time absolutely worth it.