5 Helpful Habits Harvested from Software-Engineering Twitter
Earlier this month I asked Twitter a question:
What’s the most helpful habit you’ve established during your software engineering career?
I’ve always been fascinated by anyone that’s reached the pinnacle of excellence in their chosen profession, especially software engineering (since that’s what I do!). I’m convinced that compounded improvements resulting from simple daily habits deliberately practiced for years is the secret to going from novice to expert. What better way to collect a list than to ask engineers what they do?
I took your responses and divided them up into 5 categories:
Self Care
You need a healthy “you” to write great software.
I was pleasantly surprised at the number of responses I received pointing out some type of self care. Find balance between your working hours and your personal/family time. Get plenty of rest. Learn when it’s time to say no. Eat well. Invest time and effort in physical fitness. All of these will make you a better engineer.
Learning
Because change is the only constant, you‘re never done learning.
Many of you emphasized the importance of learning. First of all becoming comfortable with not knowing things, and being willing to invest time and effort in learning them. Reading: books, docs, code. Know when to ask for help. Become a Google search expert and a StackOverflow filter.
Empiricism
Verify that things are in fact as they appear.
Question everything, especially when you’re surprised. Experiment with tests. When you don‘t understand something, write a test. When you’re fixing a bug, write a test that fails in the bug’s presence, then make the test pass.
Iterative and Incremental
We evolve our way to great software, one commit at a time.
Start somewhere. Work in small steps. Iteratively improve until its good enough. Make it work. Make it right. Make it tight. Get feedback, improve the software. Retrospect, improve the team.
Other Care
You need a healthy team to write great software.
We’ll end where we began, with human care. Be patient. Cultivate empathy. Always be kind and helpful to everyone. Even (especially) when it’s not easy. All of these things will make your team healthier, more effective, and more resilient.
