Notes:
Isolated experience is a great teacher. Team-based experience is
invaluable. Climb a mountain alone, and you'll feel great. Climb
a mountain in a team, and you'll learn more about yourself than
you would alone.
Children seek feedback continuously. This is how they learn so quickly.
They try things and fail or succeed. Animal clicker training is
a good example of constant and immediate feedback. The clicker is
used whenever something positive happens. It is followed by food
to reinforce the sound. It is the best method for training animals
today.
Our schools teach us individualism. We're not allowed to work
in groups. Society is about functioning as a group. Companies
spend a lot of time retooling individualists into team players.
It takes a long time, because our individualism is so ingrained.
Feedback is wonderful if it is sought. XP requires programmers
to seek feedback, but don't give feedback without being asked.
People only learn when they are listening. Unexpected or
unwanted feedback creates problems.
XP unit testing gives feedback about immediate code quality.
Does my change work? Acceptance testing gives feedback from
the customer. Does my change satsify the customer? Iterations
give feedback to the customer that the project is on schedule.
Pair programming is a positive feedback loop between two
programmers.