Learn how to say no.
Learn how to get paid when working for yourself.
Try to learn or at least play around with a new language every year.
Keep writing code.
Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
151–160 of 191 posts
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, absolutely! I really want a whole-repo tree view of files along with their sizes and file types.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/octotree/bkhaagjah... Check out Octotree if you're using Chrome. No file sizes still, but I've found that when you just want to quickly explore some potential new source this beats having to clone the repo first.
That is great, thanks!
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#153Oh god, again with this.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#1541. Make it compile
2. Make it run
3. Make it work
4. Make it robust - Correct the errors
5. Make it failsafe - Handle the edge cases (out of memory, disk full)
6. Make it fast
7. Make it small
8. Make it clean (warnings, lint, beautify/style, clean up dead/commented code, in other words, polish the back of the cabinet)
I've met programmers in school who stop at #1 or #2. Most programming jobs get bogged down endlessly trying to get through the #4 backlog until the deadline comes along and they have to ship. Most developers, when asked to provide an effort estimate for a particular task only budget for #1, #2, and #3 (and with experience will learn to account for #4).
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> * Practice empathy Any tips on how to do this? I don't often feel things for myself and it's even rarer to experience empathy at a level I can detect. I meditate to try to better understand and learn to detect my feelings, but haven't made much progress yet (I use Headspace).
Read books on body language. https://www.amazon.com/Emotions-Revealed-Recognizing-Communi... https://www.amazon.com/Unmasking-Social-Engineer-Element-Sec...
Also https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010SKSTO/, "What Every Body is Saying".
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#156One small addition: if you have the choice between a complex data structure (w/simple algo) or a complex algorithm (w/simple data structure), choose the simple algorithm. It's very often easier to reason about data as it's relatively static, vs a complex algorithm.
Once everything is working then, if it's warranted, change the algorithm.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#157Always look both ways before crossing a one-way street.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#158Meta-habit: learn to adopt different habits for different situations. With that in mind, some techniques I've found useful for various situations: "Researchey" green-field development for data-science-like problems: 1. If it can be done manually first, do it manually. You'll gain an intuition for how you might approach it. 2. Collect examples. Start with a spreadsheet of data that highlights the data you have availab…
Thanks for these notes! I reformatted this in a Google Doc, if anybody wants: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pix3-l3Qz1aLOuxoiiP1PTV6...
Could you put a link back to the original source in the doc? That way you capture the comments & discussion, which has a bunch of useful clarifications.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#159Meta-habit: learn to adopt different habits for different situations. With that in mind, some techniques I've found useful for various situations: "Researchey" green-field development for data-science-like problems: 1. If it can be done manually first, do it manually. You'll gain an intuition for how you might approach it. 2. Collect examples. Start with a spreadsheet of data that highlights the data you have availab…
This is a great comment! If you have a blog could you make it a blog post? It deserves to be read more widely.
I've been tempted to start a blog...I've gotten a few requests on HN...but I'm still in the "rather be a programmer than a web celebrity" phase. I'm afraid it'll be too much of a distraction from my projects. Plus, I usually write better in response to a prompt than coming up with content in a vacuum.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#160Meta-habit: learn to adopt different habits for different situations. With that in mind, some techniques I've found useful for various situations: "Researchey" green-field development for data-science-like problems: 1. If it can be done manually first, do it manually. You'll gain an intuition for how you might approach it. 2. Collect examples. Start with a spreadsheet of data that highlights the data you have availab…
You're a genius! How long have you been into the developing world, if I may ask?
12 years, plus college, a gap year, and a couple internships & projects in high school.
It's helped that it's really been 12 (well, 13+change) years of experience, rather than one year repeated 12 times. Each year has brought something new and different that's just out of my comfort zone.