What We Do | Vianney, Tech Team

Hi, my name’s Vianney and I’m almost 40 years old 😱

I’ve been a developer for about fifteen years now, working with various scripts: Cobol and MVS, J2EE, Perl, PHP, Python, etc. and in very different professions (insurance, banks, NGOs/associations, carpooling, Cloud, security, and e-commerce to name a few!).

Outside of work, I like to go on long adventures (Trans-Siberian railway, 2 years in Chad, 3 months of walking, etc.), because I love meeting people and the slowness. I have lots of future trips in mind.

I have been developing since I was about 12 years old, in GFA Basic on my brother’s Atari 520 ST. I remember making a 2D rugby game. I used to program on double copy first because I wasn’t allowed to spend too much time in front of a screen. 

Yeah, I know, it’s kinda nerdy.

But, I never thought I’d make a living out of it. I had forgotten about my original passion, and came back to it a bit later in life, after my first professional experiences. What I like about development is that it is actually very literary. There are as many styles of writing as there are paradigms and languages. Development is a means of expression.

INSA in Rouen.

Linux, git, Python 3.6, django and vim.

At Lengow we offer real training and exchange around ‘tech-eat’. We take the opportunity to talk about freely chosen topics, often related to the technologies we use during luch breaks.

There are also (too rarely for my liking) meetups in Nantes. It’s a relaxed and pressure-free way to train and network.

But nothing beats the tandem experience and reading to get to know a subject in depth. I read 6 to 12 books a year on technical subjects, not necessarily related to what I do at work. Just subjects that interest me and that open me up to other techniques.

Training people is also a good way to train yourself: by presenting subjects, feedback. I also do some tutoring on OpenClassrooms.

I think you have to try to acquire “T” skills. The vertical bar of the T represents a speciality, a technical skill that one masters in depth. The horizontal bar represents general culture, versatility. A person without expertise will not be able to contribute to a group. And a person without versatility will find it difficult to collaborate.

Some YouTube channels:

• Christopher Okhravi, especially for his videos on object programming.
• All of “Uncle” Bob Martin’s lectures, scattered over several channels
• SF Python for the whole Python ecosystem
• The AFP channel on which all PyConFR conferences are broadcast

Twitter accounts:
Julia Evans @b0rk: a developer who also draws tons of very well done cheat sheets
Daily Python Tip @python_tip to learn something new every day
Raymond Hettinger @raymondh, a core dev Python guru
@nixCraft for a bit of system culture and Sysadmin
Command Line Magic @climagic to master the command line a little better

…the list is endless!

Don’t count on what you learned in school to do well professional. In general, never rest on your laurels:

• Learn one new programming language per year.
• Read one book a month.
• Not just technical books.
• Take lessons, go to meetings, always stay up-to-date.
• When you feel comfortable in the technology, change tech company.

Start as soon as possible by reading the book “The Pragmatic Programmer”: it contains all the tricks of the trade, the know-how, the know-how to be.

And drop your text editor unless it’s vim.