1. Underpromise and overdeliver.
Correctly promise and correctly deliver.
Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#12Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#131) Judgement
2) Prioritization
3) If non-urgent then take the time to make good decisions
4) Discussion in person is best, phone is second best, email is worst
5) Don't underestimate the work other people do, or their attitude to it
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#14Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#151. Keyboard shortcuts. From Win-plus-number-keys to Autohotkey-defined macros. Makes the time between "think of task" and "accomplish task" instantaneous. 2. Notes. From "what was the answer to this bug last time" to "how do you toString an Enumeration?" Increases your memory far beyond human proportions. 3. Abstractifying problems. Don't just google error message, google "Tomcat having trouble compiling JSPs." Don't…
Are your (not sensitive) AutoHotkey scripts available on Github or something? Maybe others could learn some neat tricks.
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#16Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#17Keep track of people you've enjoyed working with. They are hard to find.
This is good advice. It will pay off in the long run. I've learned this throughout my career. It's hard to find people who are on your wavelength, so when you work with them, keep in touch, you may be able to help collaborate again in the future.
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#18Being able to draw flowcharts to explain complex things to non-tech people.
If you're also able to make good drawings, this serves as a quick e-mail reminder of the stuff you've talked about ;-)
A good capture app (like camscanner or onenote) is great to complement this superpower.
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#191. Keyboard shortcuts. From Win-plus-number-keys to Autohotkey-defined macros. Makes the time between "think of task" and "accomplish task" instantaneous. 2. Notes. From "what was the answer to this bug last time" to "how do you toString an Enumeration?" Increases your memory far beyond human proportions. 3. Abstractifying problems. Don't just google error message, google "Tomcat having trouble compiling JSPs." Don't…
> 3. Notes
This also works in code. Commenting why something was done a certain way, and think of yourself 6 months from now when you have to fix a bug but don't remember what the thing was supposed to do.
Re: Ask HN: What are the 5 most important techniques you use at job?
#20Do the shit work, and do it well.
I learned this working at a discount store growing up, not in my professional career but it carries forward. No teenage kid wants to mop the floor, but when you do it and do it well you get leeway on other stuff.
Monotonous code changes spanning over 100 files to transition an application off an older platform? Gotta be done. This is where macros and shortcuts and plowing through work comes in. Be a professional, not a prima donna.
You can't just write greenfield new applications using the best tools all the time. It would be like an auto mechanic only wanting to work on engine rebuilds for classic cars and not wanting to do oil changes all week. (I imagine this is the cool thing for auto mechanics, I'm not one though so I could be wrong.)