Keep learning, surround yourself with smarter people than you, find a good mentor/s, ditch your ego, don't be afraid to be wrong and don't hesitate to throw away your code if needed.
Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
21–30 of 88 posts
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#22[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#23Focus more on people skills. Took me too long to figure that one out. :)
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#24Never ever stop learning.
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#25Don’t ever bother learning or using object-oriented programming.
Care to explain?
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#26[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#27Focus more on people skills. Took me too long to figure that one out. :)
Same
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#28See that Senior Engineer over there with the white hair, dorky glasses and a shirt begging for a pocket protector? Attach yourself to him and listen. You'll learn more from him in ten minutes than you will in ten hours of conversation with your classmates-cum-coworkers.
That knowledge will build up with time, and someday, a younger developer will come to you with questions. Take the time and answer them; it's worth it.
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#29Don’t ever bother learning or using object-oriented programming.
Well at least understand it's not the be all and end all.
Re: Ask HN: Senior developers, what would you tell a younger you?
#30* If you look around and your the best person on the team, start looking for another job -- it will be a lot harder to get better if you dont.
* Switch employers every 2 years. Do not have loyalty unless you have stock options.
* Contribute to open source for the learning experience
* Use what works, dont focus on the hot new trends (redis, mysql, django, ror vs express, mongodb, etc.).
* learn at least one functional language really well
* learn one statically typed language really well
* learn one dynamically typed language really well
* multiply all time estimates by some coefficient C, where C is always larger than 1.
* become familiar design patterns described in Gang of Four
* learn the UNIX commands and piping really well, they will save you a lot of time.
* have side projects and dont be scared to show them off!