getting from Seven golden advices for programmer

  1. Never trust yourself It’s about the code. Everytime, when I have an error somewhere but can’t find it, I begin blame everything: interpreter, environment, language. But this is always the error in code, mostly this error is simple, like similar name of variable or just silly typo. In such moment I always trying to change state of my mind, switch environment, write unit test, grab cup of coffee or go for a walk.

  2. Stay calm Everytime, when we have something important, we start worrying about that. I know, this is complicated to keep things under control, and I think that is possible. There are plenty things, which can annoy you like slow deployment or environment, bad code, lack of documentation or even noise in the office. It is very important to understand that this is just your job and you are professional, you can handle that. Sometimes it gets tricky or complicated, but this is possible.

  3. Don’t postpone it There is a lot of distracting factors: simple tasks, some emails or videos from Watch Later. You begin procrastination and time wasting instead of real work. It is better to enforce yourself to start solving the problem. If problem is too big, try to split it to several small parts (decomposition). Sometimes I start writing interface or abstract class. Sometimes i begin with one-line comments. Start coding right now, don’t postpone it!

  4. Read the books Read, read and read. You are pour without books. Yes, you can read the articles, but that is not enough. Many books systematize your knowledge, make it deeper and wider. Also, books contribute to evolving of your intellection. I don’t speak about language references, I always thought that is useless because many modern IDE has perfect support of documentation rendering. I speak about the good books, like “Code complete” for example.

  5. Know your tools The biggest part of my life I have spent with relatively slow hardware, therefore I had to use simplest and fastest solutions. I used shell, I tried to create little bash and bat scripts. And later when I started using IDE, by habit I haven’t used its most advanced features. It takes some effort to learn but it drastically increases your productivity. Always invest in your education.

  6. Help others Always help your friends or colleagues. It will pay you back.

  7. Never stop learning Doesn’t matter how old you are. Just go and learn.