This is a guest post from Christie Brandao. Enjoy. Dear new developer, It’s easy to get wrapped up in only focusing on the deeply technical aspects of your job, especially if many parts of the stack have technologies you haven’t worked with yet. As your career progresses over time, you will be improving the quality … Continue reading Understand the use case
Dear new developer, I've been surprised by how often I get a response from people I consider "famous". A few examples. Brad Feld, a well known venture capitalist, was willing to do a sixty minute AMA for the Boulder Ruby group. (If you want to watch the video, it was recorded.)I asked a question of … Continue reading Make the ask
This is a guest post from an anonymous FAANG engineer. Enjoy. Dear New Developer, In 2020, one question lurks in all of our minds: What the hell is going on? And yet, for many of us, life not only goes on, it presents exciting new opportunities. Towards the end of 2019, after six years of … Continue reading Interviewing at a FAANG in the Midst of COVID
This is a guest post from Shawn Wang aka swyx. Enjoy. Dear new developer, If there's a golden rule to learning, it's this one. You already know that you will never be done learning. But most people "learn in private", and lurk. They consume content without creating any themselves. Again, that's fine, but we're here … Continue reading Learn in public
This is a guest post from Karl Hughes. Enjoy. Dear new developer, I was in your shoes in 2011. I was finishing up a degree in mechanical engineering that I would never use and looking for a way to join a startup as a software developer. Maybe it was the entrepreneur in me, and maybe … Continue reading Your network increases optionality
Dear new developer, "Outcomes over output" is one of my favorite letters on this blog. In it, Mark, a guest poster, talks about what business actually values (outcomes) over what developers often focus upon (outputs). Outcomes are things like: more saleshappier customerspublicityless customer churn Outputs, on the other hand, are things like: more featurestest coverageflexible … Continue reading Influencing outcomes through output
Dear new developer, I've spent a lot of my time maintaining working code. I think that is more typical of software developers than working in greenfield development. Yes, there are definitely jobs where you are writing more new code than maintaining, upgrading, bug fixing and improving old code (startups without product market fit being one, … Continue reading Always leave the code better than you found it
Dear new developer, A key part of software development is being able to pick up where you left off. You are going to have interruptions during your day, and you want to be prepared for them. Whether you took a break to rest your eyes, stepped away for lunch or have left for the day, … Continue reading Save off context
This is a guest post from Minh Pham. Enjoy. Dear new developer, I want to start off by saying Congrats and Good job. If you're reading this, it's likely you know how to code - and even if you're still working on getting that first job, that means you have one of the most desirable … Continue reading Create Value for People
Dear new developer, The honest truth is that you won't know everything. No one does. The CEO, CTO, the team lead, that really smart senior developer on your team, none of them know everything. In fact, I bet if you asked any one of them if they'd been stymied in the past week, they'd reveal … Continue reading How to say I don’t know
Letters To A New Developer 