Knowing and Doing

Sandi Metz's latest newsletter is about the heuristic not to name a class after the design pattern it implements. Actually, it's about a case in which Metz wanted to name a class after the pattern it implements in her code and then realized what she had done. She decided that she either needed to have a better reason for doing it than "because it just felt right" or she needed practice what she preaches to the rest of us. What followed was some deep thinking about what makes the rule a good one to follow and her efforts to put her conclusions in writing for the benefit of her readers.

I recognize with Metz's sense of discomfort at breaking a rule when it feels right and her need to step back and understand the rule at a deeper level. Between her set up and her explanation, she writes:

I've built a newsletter around this rule not only because I believe that it's useful, but also because my initial attempts to explain it exposed deep holes in my understanding. This was a revelation. Had I not been writing a book, I might have hand-waved around these gaps in my knowledge forever.

People sometimes say, "If you you really want to understand something, teach it to others." Metz's story is a great example of why this is really true. I mean, sure, you can learn any new area and then benefit from explaining it to someone else. Processing knowledge and putting it in your own words helps to consolidate knowledge at the surface. But the real learning comes when you find yourself in a situation where you realize there's something you've taken for granted for months or for years, something you thought you knew, but suddenly you sense a deep hole lying under the surface of that supposed understanding. "I just know breaking the rule is the right thing to do here, but... but..."

I've been teaching long enough to have had this experience many times in many courses, covering many areas of knowledge. It can be terrifying, at least momentarily. The temptation to wave my hands and hurry past a student's question is enormous. To learn from teaching in these moments requires humility, self-awareness, and a willingness to think and work until you break through to that deeper understanding. Learning from these moments is what sets the best teachers and writers apart from the rest of us.

As you might guess from Metz's reaction to her conundrum, she's a pretty good teacher and writer. The story in the newsletter is from the new edition of her book "99 Bottles of OOP", which is now available. I enjoyed the first edition of "99 Bottles" and found it useful in my own teaching. It sounds like the second edition will be more than a cleanup; it will have a few twists that make it a better book.

I'm teaching our database systems course for the first time ever this fall. This is a brand new prep for me: I've never taught a database course before, anywhere. There are so many holes in my understanding, places where I've internalized good practices but don't grok them in the way an expert does. I hope I have enough humility and self-awareness this semester to do my students right.