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Focusing On Fundamentals Is Not Repetition, It is Refinement

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cottrell addresses the common feeling of monotony in professional work, particularly in software engineering. He challenges the perception that daily tasks like writing code, running tests, or attending meetings are merely repetitive, arguing instead that these fundamental activities are opportunities for continuous refinement and growth.

Cottrell draws parallels to strength training exercises like deadlifts, where the form remains the same but the individual’s capacity and context change with each repetition. Similarly, as developers repeat coding tasks, they accumulate contextual knowledge, improve their intuition, and enhance their ability to perform at deeper levels. The environment in which these actions take place is constantly evolving, often as a direct result of previous actions.

The episode emphasizes that repetition is not about stagnation but about developing layers of understanding and automaticity. Cottrell explains that as professionals engage in repeated actions—whether managing one-on-one meetings, reading books multiple times, or writing code—they move from surface-level execution to intuitive, nuanced performance. This process allows them to focus on core activities while ancillary tasks become secondary.

By combining this perspective with meta-modeling and steering systems discussed in previous episodes, listeners can rediscover the value of fundamentals. Cottrell concludes that learning is not about constantly seeking novelty but about deepening engagement with essential practices, transforming perceived monotony into a path for professional and personal development.

Recommendations

Communities

  • Developer Tea Discord — Cottrell recommends joining the Developer Tea Discord community for free to connect with other software engineers looking to improve their careers. The community provides a platform for discussing fundamental activities and sharing experiences.

Tools

  • Square CPoS APIs — Sponsored mention: Square’s customer point of sale APIs allow developers to manage employees, organize customer data, generate invoices and gift cards, and create loyalty programs through simple REST calls. There’s no cost to use these APIs, and developers can participate in the Build What’s Possible Hackathon for a chance to win $20,000.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the overwhelming nature of professional work — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode by acknowledging that being a software engineer—or a professional in any complex industry—can feel overwhelming. He references previous discussions about fundamental activities that, when focused on and improved, can enhance one’s entire job performance. The episode aims to explore why returning to fundamentals is not repetitive but transformative.
  • 00:01:07 — The illusion of repetition in professional processes — Cottrell uses his experience of producing over 1,020 episodes of Developer Tea to illustrate how processes may seem repetitive from the outside. He draws parallels to software engineering, where developers might feel they write the same code, run the same tests, and attend the same meetings daily. This perceived monotony can be frustrating, but he promises to offer a different perspective.
  • 00:03:48 — Why repetitive action is constantly changing — After a sponsor message from Square, Cottrell explains that repetitive actions are not static because the environment and the individual performing them change. Using the example of deadlifts in strength training, he notes that while the form remains consistent, the person’s capacity and context evolve. Similarly, writing code repeatedly changes the developer’s intuition and the codebase’s environment.
  • 00:06:22 — The value of repetition over chaos for learning — Cottrell contrasts repetitive action with a chaotic approach, arguing that consistency provides more learning opportunities. He describes how repeated actions allow professionals to visualize and move through layers of a process, from beginner levels to deeper, intuitive understanding. This layering enables automatic responses and nuanced insights, such as in management one-on-ones.
  • 00:08:03 — Combining repetition with meta-modeling for career growth — Cottrell ties the discussion back to previous episodes on meta-modeling and steering systems. He emphasizes that focusing on core, fundamental activities makes them more valuable and helps professionals rediscover that learning is about deepening engagement with basics rather than seeking constant novelty. This approach transforms ancillary tasks and enhances overall career development.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2021-11-18T08:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:09:41

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Being a software engineer can sometimes feel overwhelming.

[00:00:06] Really being a professional in any reasonably complicated industry can feel overwhelming.

[00:00:14] But the truth is that for most industries, there are some fundamental activities that

[00:00:20] you can participate in.

[00:00:21] We kind of talked about these in the last episode, the categorical activities that if

[00:00:26] you were to focus on those and improve those, like we talked about in the last episode,

[00:00:32] then your whole job would improve in step.

[00:00:39] We’re going to talk a little bit about this idea of returning the fundamentals and why

[00:00:44] it’s quite the opposite of doing the same thing over and over.

[00:00:47] My name is Jonathan Cottrell.

[00:00:48] You’re listening to Developer Tea.

[00:00:50] My goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose

[00:00:55] in their careers.

[00:00:57] I’ve done something like 1,020 of these episodes of Developer Tea, and it may seem like from

[00:01:07] the outside looking in that what I’m doing is repetitive.

[00:01:12] Not necessarily the content, but the process.

[00:01:16] And the motions certainly do look quite the same.

[00:01:20] I stand in front of the same microphone and I press the same buttons, I publish to the

[00:01:25] same platform, and ultimately the kind of way that this show gets disseminated doesn’t

[00:01:34] really change all that much.

[00:01:38] And it may seem like I’m doing the same thing over and over.

[00:01:40] If you are a software engineer, it may feel like you do the same thing over and over.

[00:01:45] You write the same kind of code, you run the same kind of tests, you deploy to the same

[00:01:50] servers, and you have the same kind of concerns that are popping up from your teammates.

[00:01:55] You do the same meetings day in and day out.

[00:02:00] And the monotony of that, or the seeming monotony, can be frustrating.

[00:02:08] But I want to share with you a different perspective on this.

[00:02:12] Specifically, I want you to start re-encoding in your mind the idea that this repetitive

[00:02:19] action is actually, we’ll talk about why, right after we talk about today’s sponsor.

[00:02:32] Today’s episode is sponsored by Square.

[00:02:36] You might know them for their little white card readers, their little payment devices

[00:02:41] that are at your local coffee shop, maybe at a farmer’s market, the credit card machines,

[00:02:47] and point of sale probably everywhere in your town.

[00:02:52] Square is already trusted by millions of sellers worldwide.

[00:02:56] They have APIs for running every aspect of a business.

[00:03:00] And they’re now making those APIs available to you as a developer.

[00:03:04] With a simple rest call, you can tap into Square’s enterprise grade customer point of

[00:03:09] sale APIs to manage employees, organize customer data, generate invoices and gift cards, and

[00:03:15] even create loyalty programs.

[00:03:17] And even better, there’s no cost to you to use these APIs.

[00:03:21] You can try out Square’s CPoS APIs today for a chance to win $20,000 in the Build What’s

[00:03:28] Possible Hackathon.

[00:03:29] For more information and to register, go to squ.re slash CPoS.

[00:03:35] That’s squ.re slash CPoS.

[00:03:39] Thanks again to Square for supporting Developer Team.

[00:03:48] Why is repetitive action actually changing all the time?

[00:03:55] This isn’t just me paying lip service to this idea.

[00:03:59] This is actually true.

[00:04:03] As you repeat the actions, like for example, running tests or writing code, the environment

[00:04:12] that you’re doing those actions in is changing.

[00:04:17] Sometimes that change is a direct result of the previous actions.

[00:04:22] I think, for example, about certain kinds of exercise.

[00:04:26] You may perform the same exact strength training exercise, let’s say deadlifts, and the form

[00:04:34] doesn’t change, but you begin to change.

[00:04:38] And so when you approach the deadlift the next time, nothing necessarily is going to

[00:04:43] change about the motions that you make, but the context has changed completely.

[00:04:49] The way you experience it certainly changes, but also your capacity, and this is the critical

[00:04:55] thing, your capacity to perform in that particular activity has increased.

[00:05:02] You may be writing code that feels like the same for loop for the thousandth time, but

[00:05:09] After you’ve repeated this process, you’ve gone through the repetitive process of writing

[00:05:16] code over and over and learning a lot about when to use certain techniques and how to

[00:05:22] refactor and a bunch of other kind of contextual information you can bring to that process

[00:05:28] of writing code, the way that you think about that process changes.

[00:05:36] This probably feels pretty obvious, and in some ways it is.

[00:05:40] Of course, everything around us changes, but I want you to think about this interaction

[00:05:46] of doing the same thing in a different environment or as a different person.

[00:05:54] As you continue writing code, you’re changing the environment that that code lives in.

[00:06:00] As you continue exercising, you’re changing yourself.

[00:06:04] As you continue reading books, maybe you even read the same book multiple times, each

[00:06:09] time that you read it, the way that you relate to the book will change.

[00:06:16] On the flip side, if you were to only do different actions, or to have a chaotic approach to

[00:06:22] all of your actions, then that is a uniform characteristic.

[00:06:28] Form chaos, as strange as it sounds, provides less of an opportunity for learning.

[00:06:35] When you have this basis of repeated action, you can kind of visualize layers to the process

[00:06:45] of performing that particular action.

[00:06:47] At the very beginning, when you’re a complete beginner, you’re at that first layer, but

[00:06:52] as you gain more experience, you move through that layer and you get to deeper layers.

[00:06:59] Now, when you discard those layers before, you’re not ignoring them, it just becomes

[00:07:05] closer to an automatic response.

[00:07:07] In other words, you’re developing an intuitive sense for how to perform at a deeper layer

[00:07:15] the same tasks that you have been performing already.

[00:07:19] As a manager, your very first one-on-one, for example, might feel awkward, or like you

[00:07:26] can’t really get a sense for how this person is feeling, or what you can do to help them.

[00:07:31] As you progress, you can start to gain strong intuition, or even nuanced details in the

[00:07:37] way the person is talking to you, or nuanced details in the way that they’re writing their

[00:07:44] code even.

[00:07:45] You can start to pick up on these things because the repetition that you’ve engaged in with

[00:07:51] these particular actions has given you the opportunity to develop actual intuition.

[00:07:58] This perspective combined with what we talked about in the last episode, the meta-modeling

[00:08:03] and steering systems, can help you really focus on making these core activities so much

[00:08:11] more valuable, and hopefully you can rediscover that the learning process is not about doing

[00:08:18] something different every day, it’s about opening back those layers and really focusing

[00:08:24] in on those fundamental things, and everything else becomes ancillary.

[00:08:31] Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer T. Thank you again to Square

[00:08:34] for sponsoring today’s episode.

[00:08:36] You can try out Square’s CPoS APIs for free for the chance to win $20,000 in the Build

[00:08:42] What’s Possible Hackathon.

[00:08:44] Head over to squ.re slash CPoS.

[00:08:48] Thank you again.

[00:08:49] Huge thank you to Square for supporting Developer T. Thanks so much for listening.

[00:08:53] If you enjoyed this episode, if you want to talk more about these kind of fundamental

[00:08:58] activities, maybe you want to share what your activities are.

[00:09:01] You can always reach out on Twitter.

[00:09:04] We don’t talk about that very often.

[00:09:06] You can email me as well, developert.gmail.com, but the best way is to head over to the Developer

[00:09:12] T Discord.

[00:09:13] Head over to developert.com slash Discord.

[00:09:16] You can join that community totally free to other software engineers like you who are

[00:09:22] wanting to get better in their careers.

[00:09:24] There’s a lot of paths to doing that.

[00:09:27] Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, enjoy your tea.

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