Read other peoples (good) code.
And read bad code as well so you'll know the difference.
Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
111–120 of 191 posts
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#112The most valuable habit I've developed IMO is reinventing the wheel. When you face a new challenge with new concepts you're unfamiliar with, the best way to get a good grasp of the environment/tools/techniques is to rebuild it (them) from scratch. Example: I was spending a lot of time interacting with external REST API's (foursquare, twitter and other services) but never really understood the inner workings, so I jus…
I think it's important to distinguish reinventing the wheel for practice or understanding, and reinventing the wheel out of stubbornness or "not built here". The first is important because, as you said, it really helps you understand some things that might be rather opaque initially. I didn't understand backpropagation until I implemented it myself.
But what you don't want to do is reinvent the wheel just because you can. Don't write your own crypto, and use whatever FOSS software (with a license approved by your employer) and existing solutions that you can, unless you really need a feature that they don't have. Programming is awesome in part because we can build solutions on top of other pre-exsting solutions; it's 2017 and I can code Python in a web browser with interspersed markdown.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#113Focus on the problem and not the tools ceremony around it. Don't follow the herd and the hype. When given a problem, keep drilling the problem until it is absolutely clear to you and then only work on solution.
"A woodsman was once asked, 'What would you do if you had just five minutes to chop down a tree?' He answered, 'I would spend the first two and a half minutes sharpening my axe'.” Proper understanding of the problem is extremely important. Great advice.
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Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#114The "developer on fire" podcast closes out each episode by asking the guest to provide three tips for delivering more value. Some that occur frequently are: * Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, exercise and healthy food. Have hobbies. * Constantly learn new stuff * Practice communication skills. Building stuff fast and well doesn't help if you're building the wrong thing, and you need communication skills to pr…
> * 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).
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#115"Don't surprise me". The best code doesn't make you double-take when you're reading it.
Thanks for making that so succinct. I can't count the number of times I've run into code like that.
I used to have scorn for devs that handed code over like that but I've since turned around to thinking that this is mostly due to time crunches. Maybe something worked and then it didn't so they hacked in something and moved on.
Also I have the benefit of seeing this for the first time and not glossing over it with a mental "oh yeah that junk, let me get to the next issue"
So my advice would be like the scouting / camping / hiking saying of leave it better than you found it.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#1161. Get good at decomposing problems.
2. Be attentive to "flow" and how you achieve it. Space/surroundings, time of date, amount of time, etc.
3. Be aware of your energy level, and match the task to your energy level. Get away from the keyboard and get your brain engaged in other activities to keep you fresh and excited about programming.
4. Write great documentation. This takes as much practice as programming itself. Understand "great" is not equal to "a lot"
5. Don't overbuild on the first pass. Refactoring is your friend.
6. Prototyping is very valuable, but be aware the prototype that doesn't die. I tend to use languages that force the prototype to be thrown away.
7. Profile.
8. Always be learning about your craft and related areas. Business, design, security are all handy when you're a programmer.
9. Don't be a jerk.
10. Learn a variety of languages. You'll likely have a few favorite languages, which is fine, but always be picking up new ideas.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#117The "developer on fire" podcast closes out each episode by asking the guest to provide three tips for delivering more value. Some that occur frequently are: * Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, exercise and healthy food. Have hobbies. * Constantly learn new stuff * Practice communication skills. Building stuff fast and well doesn't help if you're building the wrong thing, and you need communication skills to pr…
Sleep, exercise, and good food are essential.
If you try to work on a complex algorithm with little sleep, you tend to throw a wrench into it.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#118Reuse code;
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#119I made a list as I worked, to avoid repeating classes of errors. I found this list decades later. Last entry:
Forgot to eat. Got sick.
Re: Ask HN: What habits make a programmer great?
#120Meta-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…
Great list. Only thing I'd add is lean towards clever and often simple architecture when modelling a solution, it often will beat clever programming..