Dear new developer, If you want to build good software, learn automated testing. Depending on your platform of choice, you may have good defaults or you may need to investigate options. But I think of a test suite as a "fat suit" for your code. Sure, your code can still "fall down". But it will … Continue reading Learn automated testing
This is a guest post from Rylan Bowers. Enjoy. Dear New Developer, 'You get what you give' isn’t just a late '90s catchy pop song set in a late '90s mall that gives me late '90s cringe (and nostalgia, but those go hand-in-hand, eh?). It’s also a great way to approach your career! This is … Continue reading ‘You get what you give’
Dear new developer, When you are considering a career move, whether to a startup, a sabbatical or further schooling (basically any time when your income will exceed your expenses) it pays to calculate your runway. There are various kinds of runway (social, emotional, financial) but the easiest one to calculate is financial. You do this … Continue reading Know your runway
Dear new developer, This post by Erik Dietrich covers the situation where a developer becomes an "expert beginner". This is something to avoid as you build your career--don't work in a place where you are isolated or unable to progress. He breaks progress in any area down into a number of components--Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Competent, … Continue reading Avoid being an expert beginner
Dear new developer, Reading the docs is so important. It is so easy, when you are confronted with a task, to just jump in and start doing. It feels right. It feels natural. It feels like progress. The problem is that it may be motion, but it probably is not progress. You may be spinning … Continue reading Read the documentation
Dear new developer, Joe Marshall has some interesting tips for new developers (he calls them "junior developers to be" but developer nomenclature is so broken that I prefer the term "new"). They are focused around finding a job (and Joe has a newsletter to help 🙂 ). They range from the simple: "Read coding interview … Continue reading Job hunting tips for new developers
Dear new developer, When you are fixing a bug in a program you are working on, a key thing to do is to get an understanding of the state of the system. This can include user input, stored values from a persistent data store, and non recurring information like the current time. But the most … Continue reading Learn to use a debugger
Dear new developer, Reading code is much more common than writing code. Some might even say, "don't trust any documentation, read the code," though I consider that to be a pretty radical position. But how can you effectively read the code. This post from selftaughtcoders.com gives a good explanation: Find one thing you know the … Continue reading How to read code
Dear new developer, It's paradoxical, but sometimes the best thing you can do is not write code. Remember, the value you provide is to solve the problem you are faced with (the outcome), not to write code. Custom code has value, but comes with costs. It needs to be deployed, maintained and upgraded. It has … Continue reading The best code is no code
Dear new developer, Searching is important to writing and understanding software. Less so for giving you a base of knowledge. For that, I'd seek out books, video classes or side projects, depending on how you learn. Googling well is tough if you don't know what terms to use. (I'll use google as a synonym for … Continue reading Learn to use Google, and use it well
Letters To A New Developer 