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Comment by klenwell

As an addendum perhaps to the Organize and Design Systems section, I'd propose including mise-en-place as it applies to project maintenance and the development environment.

This centers on tooling and documentation, especially the README. I want a README that gets me set up and running as quickly and in as few steps as possible. Recently I needed to test out some stuff one of my teams was working on. It was a somewhat complex Wordpress project. I was able to get set up using our documentation, but a couple key steps were missing making it error-prone and unnecessarily aggravating.

Anthony Bourdain explains it as only he can:

The universe is in order when your station is set up the way you like it: you know where to find everything with your eyes closed, everything you need during the course of the shift is at the ready at arm’s reach, your defenses are deployed. If you let your mise-en-place run down, get dirty and disorganized, you’ll quickly find yourself spinning in place and calling for backup. I worked with a chef who used to step behind the line to a dirty cook’s station in the middle of a rush to explain why the offending cook was falling behind. He’d press his palm down on the cutting board, which was littered with peppercorns, spattered sauce, bits of parsley, bread crumbs and the usual flotsam and jetsam that accumulates quickly on a station if not constantly wiped away with a moist side towel. “You see this?” he’d inquire, raising his palm so that the cook could see the bits of dirt and scraps sticking to his chef’s palm. “That’s what the inside of your head looks like now.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=XAsRYpsX9dEC&lpg=PA65&ots=...

parent klenwell 7 years ago

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