Blank Page Panic! Creating Confidence with TDD

Discover how to overcome blank page anxiety and build confidence in your coding process through Test-Driven Development (TDD) in this 21-minute RubyConf 2021 talk. Learn to combine TDD, pseudocode, and RSpec to kickstart your initial commit with assurance. Explore techniques to combat perfectionism, self-criticism, and external pressures while focusing on progress. Follow a practical example of creating an animal food calculation feature, starting with high-level pseudocode and progressing through RSpec error messages. Gain insights on setting up describe and context blocks, handling test failures, and celebrating successful commits. Conclude with valuable tips on emotional check-ins and refactoring for continuous improvement in your Ruby development workflow.

Blank Page Panic! Creating Confidence with Test Driven Development
Fear Perfection Self Criticism External Pressure
Exercise/ Change of Scenery
Switch Tasks
Do Not Disturb
Progress, not Perfection
Pseudocode High-level descriptions #For your eyes only
Story Card As an adoption center employee I want to have the daily amount of food calculated for an animal based on the animal type (dogs & cats) and weight (10 or more lbs or under 10 lbs).
Pseudocode Setup
Describe Blocks
Context Blocks
TESTS FAIL Error Message: uninitialized constant Routine Creator
TESTS FAIL Error Message: cannot load such file- ../routine_creator
TESTS FAIL Error Message: uninitialized constant RoutineCreator
TESTS PASS
COMMIT THAT CODE
EMOTIONAL CHECK-IN
Refactor .. again