Learn SQL

Dear new developer,

It’s a good idea to learn SQL (which stands for structured query language). This is the language that the vast majority of data is stored in for most companies. The reason for this is that relational databases (which is what SQL is the main interface for) are very good at a wide variety of data storage. Sure, at the edges of speed, scale and functionality there are other solutions, but you should reach for them when the relational database falls short, not at first.

You don’t need to be an expert at SQL, though it’s a mindbending way to interact with data, so you might want to put studying it on your list. Instead of being procedural or functional, SQL is set based. I confess, I’ve been using it for decades and still haven’t mastered it.

If you are using a modern language, there are often frameworks that sit between you and the database (for example, ActiveRecord for Rails, Hibernate for Java, SQLAlchemy for Python). These are helpful because they make simple operations simpler. If you want to look something up via primary key or a simple query, these tools can help. But if things get harder (joining across multiple tables, database specific functions) the abstraction breaks down. This is where knowing some SQL can be helpful.

There are also times when you are running queries that are punishing using a framework. For example, if you wanted to sum across a set of orders in a day to get a daily total, a naive framework would have to load all the data for the orders and then sum up the order value in memory. A more sophisticated framework would be able to generate SQL summing up the values in the database for you. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know whether the framework you are using is naive or sophisticated. But dropping into SQL will always work.

I have also found that some systems have a lot of non intuitive operations, but that at the end of the day, the magic is built on code and data storage. By looking at the data storage, you can understand some of the operations that these frameworks take care of for you. For instance, for a long time, rails migrations were magical to me. When I took a look at the database, it became clear that a fundamental piece of rails migrations was the datetime portion of the migration name stored in the database. When I got into a weird state because of running migrations then switching branches then re-running migrations, this understanding of the data structure behind them helped me out.

Some good resources to learn SQL:

One final note. People have very strong opinions on the type of SQL database they use (a commercial offering like SQL Server or Oracle, or an open source solution like MySQL or PostgreSQL). As a new developer, you want to learn whatever your company is using. Honestly, the difference between them at the basic SQL level just isn’t that large. They start to differ in more advanced SQL functions and other performance and administration concerns. But that’ll matter later in your career.

Sincerely,

Dan

Don’t be afraid to “fail”

This is a guest post from Cierra Nease. Enjoy.

Dear new developer,

“Failures” as a new developer are plenty — but you might be asking, why is “failures” in quotes? To fail something is dependent upon one’s perspective. The only true failure is to quit working towards success. Every failure brings a small success in that you learn what the right answer is not. How can you problem solve without a way of marking off solutions that do not work? A failure is simply a solution that didn’t work at that specific time.

We can all talk about how learning and growth come from having failures, but it’s hard to remember that when you feel like you are a failure. Failures do not inherently make the person a failure, and it can be hard to make that distinction in the moment. Sometimes we need someone else to remind us of this.

I’ve had a lot of people in life reiterate this concept to me. The most recent person was a fellow developer named Mike on the Denver light rail. It’s funny what will happen when people participate in communicating and interacting with each other, but that is for another blog post entirely. For now, let’s go back to Mike. Mike overheard me talking to another passenger about being in a bootcamp. When I finished my conversation, he handed me a card and said he’d love to answer any questions I have about becoming a developer. I elaborated on some of my bootcamp experience, which happens to be full of failures.

Mike expressed his number one piece of advice for any developer, telling me: “whatever you do, don’t be afraid to fail.” We started talking about this in depth, and it really resonated with me for the rest of the evening. As a new developer, you really only see senior developers’ successes. Each developer goes through their own learning process which does include failures.

The failures that lead to success don’t stop when you become a “better” developer. If you are looking for a point when you quit failing as a developer, then you are looking for the wrong thing. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you grow. The more you grow, the better the developer you become.

As a newer developer, I look forward to all of the opportunities to learn, grow, and accept my failures as the wrong solution instead of accepting them as a personal characteristic.

Sincerely,

Cierra

Cierra Nease is currently studying software development. She blogs at Cierra Codes 101.

Use copy/paste as much as you can

Dear new developer,

Use copy and paste as much as you can. Not so much for code snippets from Stackoverflow, though that will save you some time hunting down mismatched parentheses.

But this is especially useful whenever you are searching for errors or moving information between systems.

For example, recently I had to find where java was installed and set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. I could have typed it in, but that is error prone. More than once I’ve transposed or omitted letters. Whenever I’m doing this kind of adhoc software configuration, I use copy/paste.

I also use this a lot when preparing to file an issue or ticket. First, I’ll just copy and paste the error message (removing the particulars of my system like file paths) into Google to see what pops up.

Then, if it is still an issue and I don’t see any answers, I’ll pop open a text editor and cut and paste all my notes about the issue, what I’ve tried (which often leads to more avenues to explore, rubber ducking in action), logfile lines. All this would be hellish to type, so I copy and paste away.

I hear there are systems out there with more than one clipboard spot, but I’ve always gotten by with the system clipboard. I did recently discover the magic of pbpaste and pbcopy on the mac, which let you copy file contents to the system clipboard (and it looks like there are analogs for other systems).

Anyway, make sure you know and love your system clipboard. When you are trying to copy complicated text, you’ll thank me.

Sincerely,

Dan

Three Mantras to Live By

This is a guest post from Dave Mayer. Enjoy.

Dear New Dev-

After 22 years of ‘production level’ experience in the real world, I’m writing to share three mantras that have led to more happiness and more success for us.

To be clear, these are DAILY mantras. Not weekly, not monthly, not annually. Daily.

They are;

  • Surround yourself with people smarter than you
  • Build community and give without expecting anything in return
  • Listen to your gut, without exception.

Surround yourself every-damn-day with people who are smarter than you

You’ll never be, nor should you, be the smartest person in the room. Confucius reportedly wrote ‘if you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room’. Regardless of who wrote those words, they couldn’t be more true. Since high school, I’ve always known that I was smart, but I was also clear that I was not the best at everything and that everyone had something to help me learn or to help me become a better student or a better human.

I’m not suggesting you surround yourself with jerks with a ton of pretense who can’t stop talking about themselves and how smart they are, I’m suggesting that you learn to say ‘I don’t know’, ‘wow, that’s cool, tell me more’, and ‘yes, I could use some help’. Knowing that you will never have all the answers, that it’s okay to ask for help, and having an insatiable curiosity about engineering, life, music and anything that is important to you will get you far in life.

Build community and give without expecting anything in return

In 2006, going into the ‘Great Recession’ we sat in the back of the room at the Boulder-Denver New Tech Meetup and listened to Brad Feld talk about bringing people together and building community (in whatever area and subject that matters to you) with no expectation of anything in return. This idea of #GivingFirst was revolutionary to us thirteen years ago, and it’s been a life-changer for us. It’s a super simple yet elegant idea of walking into a room and asking how you can help someone solve their biggest challenges rather than where-do-they-work-or-what-kind-of-car-do-they-drive. We wrote a detailed article about this topic for CTO Lunches Magazine on page 29- give it a read. It’s truly been life-changing to help others and embrace that as a BUSINESS philosophy, not just a life philosophy. It will all come back to you, you just don’t know how or when, and that’s OK.

Listen to your gut, every day without exception

It sounds simple, but not everyone does it. Your intuition is always right, yet folks second-guess themselves, rethink things and question their own motivations. That’s all healthy, and yes, you should ‘sleep on it’, whatever ‘it’ is. Space gives clarity. In large decisions, I ALWAYS take at least 24 hours to think on what the right answer is for me, and to listen to my gut. It’s NEVER failed me and it will never fail you. I promise.

I hope you will consider even one of these three mantras. You won’t be disappointed.

– Dave

Dave Mayer is a long time community building advocate, and by day he’s CEO of Technical Integrity, a boutique recruiting firm focused on building diverse executive and technical teams for startups in Colorado and beyond.

Read great books about software development

Dear new developer,

Read books about software development.

Seriously.

Now, you won’t learn the latest techniques from books. Those will live online in blogs or videos (or in papers, if you work in an area like machine learning influenced by academia).

Nor will you learn a lot that you can put to immediate use to solve the problem right in front of you (that will probably be found in online docs, github issues, or stackoverflow).

What you’ll learn from the great books of software engineering are timeless practices. You’ll also learn how to dig in to a topic deeply, and how to take what is in the book and discern what can be applied to your work (and what should be ignored). I’ve had discussion groups about software books, which can be a fun way for people to bring their own experience (and be accountable; sometimes great books can be hard to get through).

There are a number of great books out there, but here are three:

  • The Mythical Man Month
    • Covers a major software project from the 1960s, including how hard it is to build good software and the fact that when a project is late, adding more developers will increase communication needs, which will delay it further.
  • The Pragmatic Programmer
    • Discusses software best practices and ways to level up your software development. Has a great set of checklists.
  • Refactoring
    • Talks about the practice of refactoring, which can be thought of as software maintenance (in the same way that you need to take care of your car, you need to take care of software). How to do it, when to do it, how to talk about it–these are all covered.

As a bonus, here’s a great software essay on the essential complexity of building software, There’s No Silver Bullet.

I suggest asking engineers you respect what books they’d recommend you read to deepen your understanding of your craft.

Sincerely,

Dan

Don’t try to change the tabbing / bracing style

This is a guest post from Andrew Rondeau. Enjoy.

Dear New Developer,

Don’t show up an a new job and immediately try to change the tabbing and/or bracing style. This is especially important if the codebase you work on has a very consistent style that all of the other developers follow.

Why? Tabbing and bracing styles are really a matter of personal preference. What’s important is that the codebase is readable, and keeping a consistent tabbing and bracing style is more important than having your favorite style. Furthermore, because tabbing and bracing styles are really a matter of personal preference, arguing with the more senior developers about this topic is a waste of everyones’ time. The senior developers, or your manager, will probably assume that you have poor time management skills, or that you get obsessed with details that don’t matter.

And, yes: An interesting discussion can be had over the merits of tabs versus spaces, or the merits of braces before or after the newline. The problem is that some people really get irrationally attached to whichever style they are used to. These discussions don’t fix bugs or deliver features that the business needs to survive; thus, don’t waste time and stick with whatever tabbing and bracing style your codebase uses.

When is it important to discuss tabs versus spaces, or bracing styles, as a new developer? When a codebase has an inconsistent style, especially if it doesn’t match a team’s style guide! Politely point out to your manager, or lead, that there is a lot of inconsistent use of tabs and/or braces; and suggest a tool that will automatically reformat the code. Perhaps suggest a style that a well-known open-source project uses, or a well-known style guide published by Microsoft or Apple. At that point, it’s your manager or lead’s discretion if your team will adopt a new style.

If your team does agree to change the tabbing and/or bracing style, don’t do it gradually. Why? Again, a consistent style is more important than being able to write code with your preferred tabbing or bracing style. Inconsistent code is harder to read, and confuses people about what the established style really is. It also tempts people to stick with their preferred style, instead of whatever the team agreed to. Instead, use an automated tool to reformat the code.

— Andrew

Andrew is the desktop client architect for Syncplicity, a file synchronization product. Here’s his LinkedIn profile.