What I wish I had known when starting my development career
Dear new developer, I remember when I started out, I thought meetings were a waste of time. All those people in a room (now a Zoom), discussing an issue. Folks would go back and forth, and at the end of the meeting you'd hopefully have a decision. But often the output was just more research … Continue reading Meetings are work
Dear new developer, The command line is a powerful tool, and writing shell scripts lets you write a series of commands once and replay them any time you like. But sometimes you will write a series of commands without putting them into a script. This may be because you are exploring a problem or because … Continue reading Use your shell’s history
Dear new developer, This came up in a Hacker News comment thread recently: I've been working since the 90s and I never attempted to do FizzBuzz. Is it really relevant? Maybe to screen junior developers out of college? And the response So, as someone who spends maybe 20% of their time hiring, it's still a … Continue reading The Surprising Number Of Programmers Who Can’t Program
Dear new developer, I appreciated this post which talks to people who are interested in being a developer, rather than someone who is newly a developer. I still think a lot of things apply. This especially resonated: ...programming is terrible, so learn to enjoy it. If you are “on the net” learning about what programming … Continue reading Programming Is Terrible, So Learn To Enjoy It
Dear new developer, This post is worth reading in full, but is advice that holds for all developers, not just folks starting out. I especially liked Fight for what you believe, but gracefully accept defeat. Understand that sometimes your ideas will be overruled. Even if you do turn out to be right, don't take revenge … Continue reading Egoless programming
Dear new developer, If you want to be good at interviews, learn your algorithms. Loads of companies treat algorithm knowledge as a proxy for general problem solving ability. It makes a certain sort of sense--you have to break down a problem into pieces, turn it into something software can digest, and implement it in code. … Continue reading Learn your standard library
Letters To A New Developer 