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.