Summary: Panel Avdi Grimm (twitter github blog book) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) David Brady (blog twitter github ADDcasts) Josh Susser (twitter github blog) Discussion Planning Poker Velocity Pivotal Tracker Agile Development Ugh!knowns Picks Rolls Mic Mute - Rolls MM11 (Chuck) Kindle Touch (Chuck) Blanton's (Avdi) Destroy All Software (Avdi) http://memegenerator.net/instance/12556174 (Josh) George Takei (twitter facebook) (Josh) Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes For Any Occasion (Josh) primalpalette (Josh) A Discipline for Software Engineering (David) Class Construction in C and C++: Object-Oriented Programming Fundamentals (David) Snuff: A Novel of Discworld (David) Transcript Warning: Pants not found. Abort, retry, or ignore? [Laughter] CHUCK: Oh, man! JOSH: I'm selecting ignore. DAVID: Usually, when I run that, I get the warning, “Pants not…” And people are like, "Abort! Abort!" CHUCK: [Laughs] JOSH: What do we do without James? DAVID: Have I told the joke about talking wheelchairs? CHUCK: Hey everybody and welcome back to Episode 35 of the Ruby Rogues podcast. On our panel today, we have Avdi Grimm. AVDI: Hello and I estimate that I need more coffee. CHUCK: We also have David Brady. DAVID: Hello…and holy crap! I estimate that there is exactly one Labrador Retriever in the pond in front of my house. Holy freaking crap! I have triple data to back this up. CHUCK: [Laughs] Oh dear! We also have Josh Susser. JOSH: Hey, I estimate this episode will be complete in seven and a half minutes. CHUCK: And I'm Charles Max Wood from Teach Me to Code and I estimate that I will be off of the antibiotics in about a week. DAVID: Woohoo! How soon do you estimate needing them again? Because it's all about lifestyle, my friend. CHUCK: I don't even want to think about it. Alright, let's get into this. We are going to talk about estimating today and I think this was actually a topic that was suggested by James. So, I guess he needs help estimating just like the rest of us. DAVID: Did he want to do it? Or did he just want to inflict it on us? [Laughter] DAVID: I want to know if we're stealing the chocolate pie from the window sill or if we're stealing the turd from his bathroom? Is he going to hear this episode and go, "Ahhh," Or go, "Ha, ha!" [Laughter] CHUCK: We'll ask him when he’s back. He'll be back next week. DAVID: No! We should estimate it! [Laughter] JOSH: We should predict! CHUCK: If we estimate somewhere between is that like poop versus pie content? DAVID: Poop versus pie? No, poop versus pie, actually poop over pie is how many times a dog will poop in a circle. [Laughter] DAVID: Or in a half circle, I guess. Otherwise, a full circle would be poop over two pie. JOSH: Or Tau. CHUCK: There we go! DAVID: Or Tau, yes! CHUCK: Who is it that keeps pushing Tau, was it Michael Hartl? JOSH: Yes, everyone should read his Tau Manifesto. CHUCK: Alright. So anyway, yeah, his description says, “For me, the hardest part of programming is still estimation.” We talked about some ways to make better estimates, some ways to avoid making an estimate and what to do when you have no choice. I think this is kind of interesting just because when we're talking about estimation, in a lot of cases, we've gone beyond the scope of just programming. This really comes down to your ability to solve the problem in the amount of time you thought it would take you. So, it's a person problem, not an actual programming problem per se. DAVID: And a person problem can be extrapolated if you work at a company that pays you a W2 wage. You are basically betting the company's money and time and schedule that you can finish what you say you can.
