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And The 2022 Word Of The Year for Programmers Is…
For some of us, it is exciting. For others, a little daunting
Every December I spend some time coming up with a theme for the year to come. The theme is represented by one word and I try to apply it in every aspect of my life for the entire year.
I’m excited to share my word for 2022 with the tech community and see those of us who wish to participate move toward a common goal. The word can apply to your career, personal life, or both.
The word of the year for 2022 is async.
What is “Async”?
Async is short for asynchronous, which traditionally means you do not get an immediate answer to your request. An easy way to explain it is when you’re at a restaurant.
When you sit down at a restaurant, you look over the menu and the server comes over to take your order. You put your order in, and after a while, they come back with your food. You eat it and enjoy it.
While you’re waiting for your food to be made you can do whatever you want. Talk with your friends and family, play on your phone, leave and come back, etc… It’s really up to you. When the food is done, you stop what you’re doing and eat. This is an asynchronous process.
If ordering food at a restaurant was synchronous, you would be involved with all the prep and cooking. You’d put in your order with the server, then follow them back to the kitchen. You would watch the prep cooks cut the veggies, then watch the line cooks sauté them and present them on a plate. You’d then follow them back out to your table where they serve you.
In this process, you knew step by step what was being done. You were involved in the process even though you don’t really care or are involved in the process.
This is why being async is so important. You can do the dirty work without people watching and waiting for you to finish. They can do what they want while you perform the task at hand. This is why we’re going to focus on it in 2022.
Building Async Software
Everybody reading this post has been to a website where they clicked on a button and the page didn’t look like it…
