Cory Flanigan

Pair programming has been one of my favorite skills to practice throughout my career in software. For me, it's been a great source of learning, and knowledge-transfer. It's also helped me to give and get immediate feedback on my designs, write better code, and create better systems. Consider this: if you can't explain your thinking to your pair, how will that be reflected in your code for those who have to maintain it in the future? (Including your forgetful future self.) I built a team to facilitate and grow the [CodeRetreat Denver](http://www.meetup.com/Code-Retreat-Denver/) group from 0 to 120 developers to host a recurring day of learning practice on the skills of Pair Programming and Automated Testing (TDD/BDD). My approach is to create a safe environment in which to ask probing questions about code design, naming, and abstractions, in order to achieve a solution that is as simple as it can possibly be, and no simpler. I truly enjoy helping people to understand the value of pairing, and to become a better pairing partner, and I'd be thrilled at the chance to help you grow in this way. Try me!

One of the first skills I focused heavily upon was automated testing, and TDD/BDD. It felt very awkward at first, but I eventually realized the value as an incremental design process, and began to soak up everything I could on the subject; from workflows to frameworks to styles, I wanted to know it all! In the years since I began applying TDD in my own code, it has helped me immensely; from designing simpler, more well-factored code, to creating test cases for multi-million dollar defects, all the way through to learning new languages by adapting what I already know (testing philosophy and syntax) to the new language and testing framework. The realization that TDD is semantically similar in all languages I've encountered has enabled me to more rapidly learn new frameworks, languages, and quickly understand new software systems and code-bases by understanding the tests. As well, I incepted and grew a Denver chapter of the CodeRetreat event from 0 to a group of 120 developers who convene on a semi-regular basis to practice our TDD/BDD and pair-programming skills! I've also led workshops on BDD (using R-Spec) and given [talks on testing](https://speakerdeck.com/searls/jasmine-for-rubyists-rockymtnruby-with-cory-flanigan-justin-searls). I'd love to work together to help you level up on this skill so that you'll write well reasoned, well factored code forevermore!

I have actively used Ruby full time for a number of years to build a variety of systems. I've also given presentations at Ruby and other conferences.

Throughout my career I've provisioned, managed, and scaled traditional, cloud, and virtual (linux) hosts and infrastructures. Most recently, I composed distributed application environments using Docker containers.

I've been toying with Clojure and Lisp for a few years now, and have paired with folks on a few production systems. I've yet to get to the point where I'm confident building my own projects with it, but I'm glad to help beginners with the basics by pairing, and providing resources to get over the initial bumps in the learning process.