2023-02-15 · Challenge
What a hundred days of coding challenges did to my problem solving
A daily kata habit, measured honestly after three months.
Introduction
I solved one small challenge every morning for a hundred days; here is what improved, what did not, and why I eventually stopped.
Small things that compounded
Looking back over Challenge work, the wins were unglamorous: a naming fix, a deleted config, a checklist nobody has had to edit since.
What made them stick
- They were owned by one person, not a committee.
- They shipped with a way to notice when they stopped working.
- They removed a decision instead of documenting one.
Steal this
Pick the irritation you have mentioned three times this month. That is your next project — it has already proven its staying power.
Closing
Big rewrites make better stories; small compounding makes better systems.