The usefulness of small 'crazy' ideas
Space invader
It wasn’t the first time I met someone who was worried about GitHub contributions panel.
A friend of mine was too much worried about it. Too much… and my words weren’t useful.
I needed to come up with something to make an impact on him.
So I programmed a small script to create a space invader in an empty year or whatever he liked.
For example, I have a space invader in 2016:
See the full script and all the details in Space Invader GitHub repository.
Result: It worked! It made him reflect.
GIT_COMMITTER_DATE to change the date.
Saying goodbye to an awesome colleague
A colleague was going to leave the company and he had been a very important person for all of us.
I then created a Slack channel as a tribute to write all the things we had learnt from him.
That Slack channel was very beautiful and I wanted him to have it forever.
So I programmed this small tool to create a PDF from a Slack channel based on Slack API and Latex.
Result: He loved the idea.
Simulating user actions from the Web Console
I was helping as an event organizer and it was necessary to schedule tens of tweets.
I was added to Tweetdeck and I thought that I could simulate the user actions to schedule all the tweets after being logged in.
So I opened the Web Console and I created this function to schedule a tweet at 10:30 by default:
const scheduleTweet = (message, day, goToNextMonth) => {
$(".tweet-button").click();
$(".js-compose-text").value = message;
$(".js-compose-text").dispatchEvent(new InputEvent("change"));
$(".js-schedule-button").click();
$("#amPm").click(); // depends on the current time
$("#scheduled-hour").value = 10;
$("#scheduled-minute").value = 30;
if (goToNextMonth) {
$("#next-month").click();
}
$("a[href='#".concat(day).concat("']:not(.caldisabled):not(.caloff)")).click();
$(".js-send-button").click();
}
And then I only had to program a script to get a list as follows:
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 3000, '...', 30, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 6000, '...', 31, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 9000, '...', 1, 1);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 12000, '...', 2, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 15000, '...', 3, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 18000, '...', 4, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 21000, '...', 5, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 24000, '...', 6, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 27000, '...', 7, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 30000, '...', 8, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 33000, '...', 9, 0);
setTimeout(scheduleTweet, 36000, '...', 10, 0);
...
I wrote that list in the Web Console and after 3 seconds I saw how all the tweets were scheduled in the same way I was doing that work with the web interface (maybe it wasn’t necessary to wait for 3 seconds between them).
Result: I had all the tweets scheduled after a couple of minutes.
Beyond post-it notes
I was going to join another team in a client as a software craftsperson (a mix between a developer and a technical coach). It was a special situation and I wished to have a good start.
I organized a meeting a few days before joining as a first contact to meet each other. I wanted to know their concerns and wanted them to have an idea of all the things that we could get together.
I tried to come up with something different to the use of post-it notes in order to have a pleasant meeting and to promote the participation.
Why not to write the questions and the list of things I wanted to talk about in a long paper roll?
Oh no, that’s a crazy idea!
Why not?
I didn’t have time to buy a paper roll so I made it from five Din A4 sheets of paper.
I cut each sheet of paper in three pieces and I joined them with a little of adhesive transparent tape.
My thoughts again. Oh no, that’s a crazy idea!
Why not?
I wrote all the things in the new paper roll, leaving room to take notes.
I was ready for the meeting.
And the time of the meeting arrived.
I unrolled the paper.
More than four meters of paper.
Surprised looks.
As we progressed on every issue, I cut the corresponding piece of paper.
And I placed it in one of the two stacks of paper: done or to review (with additional notes).
The paper roll was more and more short.
Result: There was an agreeable atmosphere during the meeting and I got a lot of information about the team and their concerns.