A husband to his beautiful wife and father to a wonderful son and daughter, Tom is also a software geek who loves functional programming. He is an unrelenting learner. Outside of work and family life, he can usually be found with a cup of strong coffee consuming computer science related topics or bending his brain to solve a programming Kata. He blogs about his functional programming journey at www.prigrammer.com. He has become actively involved in the software community in Cork, Ireland helping to setup the Cork Java User Group (http://www.meetup.com/corkjug/). More recently, he has helped set up Functional Kats {Cork} (http://www.meetup.com/functional-kats-cork/) after hearing Andrea Magnorsky talk about Functional Kats in Dublin on a previous Developer On Fire episode.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Tom Prior
- - Hearing Andrea Magnorsky on Developer On Fire and connecting to start up Functional Kats Cork
- - Tom and community involvement
- - Languages and tools
- - The things that "light Tom up"
- - How Tom got started in software
- - Tom's music career
- - Tom's story of failure - too quick to code and a lack of presence with his family
- - Tom's success story - family and facing fears, notably public speaking
- - Mindfulness and observing your own feelings without feeling
- - How tom stays current with what he needs to know
- - Emphasis on computer science and fundamentals
- - Tom's book recommendations
- - The things that have Tom most excited
- - Tom's sources of pain and suffering
- - The things about which Tom likes to geek out
- - Tom's prediction for the future of software
- - Tom's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Tom
Resources:
- Tom's Blog
- Andrea Magnorsky on Developer On Fire
- Mark Seemann on Developer On Fire
- NDC Oslo
- Bryan Hunter on Developer On Fire
- Scott Wlaschin on Developer On Fire
- Hammock Driven Development - Rich Hickey
- Mads Kristensen on Developer On Fire
- Linda Rising on Developer On Fire
- John Sonmez on Developer On Fire
- Uncle Bob Martin on Developer On Fire
Tom's book recommendation:
Tom's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Take breaks - be prepared to step away
- Use pen and paper and whiteboards
- Be willing to sacrifice some entertainment to balance geeking out on software with family