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How to Become a Better Developer

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Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#31

Post by rschmitty »

RyanZAG wrote: post #4

> Learn technologies that are specifically different from those that you already know. Careful with this point. A lot of people take this to heart a bit too much and dip their toes into 10+ different languages with only a couple weeks each. This is definitely a big mistake. While it's good to learn technologies that are different from what you know, you need to actually learn them, not play with them for a week. This…

Worse, you dip your toes in a new language and then suddenly that is your new hammer for which will solve all of your problems.

There is something to be said for a craftsman who has achieved a master level with his tools and not simply shopping at Home Depot every month buying the next wizbangfixitall framework. It's as if Christmas comes every 2 months and you unwrap a shinny new hammer (framework/language/database/etc) for which everything must be smashed with.

Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#32

Post by edw519 »

Wow, 2226 words and not one of them was "customer" or "user". ("user groups" doesn't count because in this context the user is "me".)

That's the whole problem with this; it's entire focus was on "me" and not on "others".

I have always believed that the best way to transcend mediocrity is to focus on others, not yourself. All this talk about mentors, technologies, methodologies, communities, opinions, and intelligence is about oneself and while probably will provide some improvement, you won't really get to the next level until you find a way to apply it.

Find a customer with a difficult problem. Find a way to solve it with whatever it takes. Trust yourself to rise to the occasion. That's the best way to become a better developer.

Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#33

Post by GrinningFool »

stephenbez wrote: post #19
auggierose wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand this attitude, working for other people is pretty boring. The best developers work for themselves.

I disagree. When you work for a company, you get to handle challenges that only come at a certain scale. For example, working just by yourself, you are unlikely to deal with huge distributed systems, or scaling an application to millions of users. Getting good feedback is critical to improving as a developer. I've learned so much by working with others and picking up on stuff they have done.

I suspect he doesn't mean literally "working for yourself". Or by yourself, for that matter - but rather, do the work and seek improvement because you enjoy the doing of it.

And on that I have to agree. It's the difference between a seat-warmer and person who will improve throughout his career.

Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#34

Post by jackweirdy »

rschmitty wrote: post #31
RyanZAG wrote: post #4

> Learn technologies that are specifically different from those that you already know. Careful with this point. A lot of people take this to heart a bit too much and dip their toes into 10+ different languages with only a couple weeks each. This is definitely a big mistake. While it's good to learn technologies that are different from what you know, you need to actually learn them, not play with them for a week. This…

Worse, you dip your toes in a new language and then suddenly that is your new hammer for which will solve all of your problems. There is something to be said for a craftsman who has achieved a master level with his tools and not simply shopping at Home Depot every month buying the next wizbangfixitall framework. It's as if Christmas comes every 2 months and you unwrap a shinny new hammer (framework/language/database/…

You're still using a hammer?

You should be using hammer.js

/s

Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#35

Post by [deleted] »

rschmitty wrote: post #31
RyanZAG wrote: post #4

> Learn technologies that are specifically different from those that you already know. Careful with this point. A lot of people take this to heart a bit too much and dip their toes into 10+ different languages with only a couple weeks each. This is definitely a big mistake. While it's good to learn technologies that are different from what you know, you need to actually learn them, not play with them for a week. This…

Worse, you dip your toes in a new language and then suddenly that is your new hammer for which will solve all of your problems. There is something to be said for a craftsman who has achieved a master level with his tools and not simply shopping at Home Depot every month buying the next wizbangfixitall framework. It's as if Christmas comes every 2 months and you unwrap a shinny new hammer (framework/language/database/…

[deleted]

Re: How to Become a Better Developer

#38

Post by astonteck »

“This is why experienced developers can pick up a new technology in a day, where a beginner could spend months.”

The idea that a professional programmer can pick up a language/technology in a day or two is unlikely. They can PLAY with a new language or new technology and understand the basic idea behind it but they are not going to know it well enough to write anything serious. The problem is not the architecture or the know-how but the syntax and limitations of the tool. Programming in multiple languages is hard; you must keep on shifting your brain back and forth between the syntaxes and the nuances of the languages. A design pattern is a design pattern no matter what language it is but the syntax of that language complicates things.

Last, let’s take a tool such as GIT for example, this thing has a zillion of commands and most of them do the same thing Why? All we need is tool to help with versioning our codes not something that stands in the way. There are a couple of GITUIs but when there is a problem, they send you straight to the command line without any real explanations. Now you realize that you should have learned it using the command line to begin with. A lot of people hear this tool was written by the creator of linux and they just jump on board like sheep when in reality this thing was not written with human being in mind. Why are we complicating things? Programmers are being smart so lets focus our energy to solve real problems instead of boosting our egos with the next tool that does not solve anything.

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