Some Coding Lessons

Some lessons I’ve learned over the years that have proved invaluable and greatly helped improve my craft as a software developer:

• Sometimes you can be the best programmer and at other times the worst.
• The only thing that matters in software is the experience of the user.
• First understand the difference between competence and proficiency. Then strive towards becoming a more proficient programmer. This will eventually bring you closer to mastering your software craft.
• You too can walk on the shoulders of giants, you just need to find which giant suits you the best.
• If you think it’s cute to align all the equals signs in your code, or make your code look pretty before solving the problem, you’re doing it wrong. Concentrate on soliving the problem first.
• Learn at night before you sleep, so you retain the most information.
• The difference between a principle and a rule is that a rule is a prescribed guide for conduct or action , whilst a principle is a comprehensie law, doctrine, or assumption.
• Use computers to compensate for your own limitations as a human, you can only retain so much information.
• Keep working on what you’re just ok at and practice obsessively till you reach a level of proficiency much greater than your peers.
• It’s wiser to code when you’re not tired and repeatedly making mistakes - you can accomplish a task in 10 minutes when you’re fresh, as opposed to when you’re tired
• Know when and how to ask for help from your colleagues or peers - always offer solutions when asking for help.

Of course there are many more lessons and guiding principles to learn and I’d like to revisit and grow this list in the near future.