Programming

The only thing a GUI text editor can be better at than a terminal editor is making it easier to use the mouse.

A lot of programmers need to work on their soft skills.

My mantra has always been to bring solutions not problems. Applying that to code reviews makes for a far more productive experience.

Rather than just pointing out errors in code help the developer with prompts towards the solution.

Or, if you're too lazy to explain why something shouldn't be done then why should another developer have to act on your criticism?

Abstraction will be the death of traditional software development as we know it

Programming is the easy part, and a useless skill on its own.

If you can only program in one language, you can't program.

C++ is the single best language to learn programming.

Stupid mistakes you make are not bugs, at least not for you.

Write the whole thing, and only then, scrap it and rewrite it. This way you actually have a good understanding of the entire implementation when you are rewriting. When I refractor while writing my draft I will slow myself down and trip over myself, I'll be way more likely to rewrite something I've already rewritten.

Sure there is a limit to the size of projects this can work for, but even for massive projects they can still be broken into decently sized chunks. I'm just advocating for not rewriting function A as soon as you finish function B.

Doing this is a hot take, but "clean architecture" is a joke.

My company is obsessed with it.

Good programmers need to be creative, flexible (soft skills with others), critical thinkers, and problem solvers. Lacking those kinds of features makes for a rigid and terrible programmer that is near impossible to work with or code behind. Leave the ego at the door.

Front end and back end are different enough that you can really specialize in one or the other. They take very different mindsets. I know how to make css obey, I don't know how to make sql performant. Its possible to have both, but not as well.

For every front-end dev, you need 3 back-end guys and a designer.

Programmers are not bad at our jobs, its just not a mature disclipline yet.

If you're not a programming superstar you can probably make more money writing nothing but Terraform code for hapless enterprises.

Python, and dynamically typed languages in general, are known as being great for beginners. However, I feel that while they’re fun for beginners, they should only be used if you really know what you’re doing, as the code can get messy real fast without some guard rails in place (static typing being a big one).