3 Important Tips for Developers
These three non-technical tips have proven essential in my career and has helped me become a better developer. The tips listed below are extracted from some good advice I received from senior developers, my own experience and by observing some experts at their work. This is meant for both junior and intermediate developers alike.
1) Overcome the Imposter Syndrome
We all have those days where you feel like a pro and can get anything done. When everything just works and things are challenging enough and the pieces fall together just right, you feel great. Its almost like you were made for this.
However, sometimes you figure out a way and then you hit an obstacle. Every time you think you made a breakthrough something else pops up and now you go back to square one. Even worse, the most mundane and simplest of things seem too difficult to build. You fall in a rut. You go from feeling like a pro to the dumbest person the world has ever seen. In that state of mind, each statement hits you with a certainty of truth, even if you have proven otherwise over the years.
The only way is to acknowledge what it is. Take a break if you need to. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your teammates when necessary. And most importantly go easy on yourself. As a wise man once said “Embrace the suck, adapt to the suck.”
2) Don’t Stick to the Same Framework
It is easy to get comfortable or even master a framework and use that on every other project you work on. It is extremely important to look at it objectively. The framework is meant to cater to the needs of a project. Ease of use and simplicity of the framework is just a part of it. If your decisions on picking a framework is solely based on your mastery/familiarity with the framework, there is a problem.
Once you learn a few frameworks/languages, you have a pretty good idea about how to go through a documentation a new framework/language. Don’t shy away from going through documentations. It is an essential skill that is not talked about a lot much less taught in school. Figure out what a project needs and decide what framework will suit best keeping your familiarity as a secondary or even a tertiary priority. Of course, there as exceptions to this where time is a primary constraint.
3) Trace the Source of the Problem
This particular tip revolves around fixing problems, whether it is a bug or a bigger problem that your code is trying to solve. A problem to be truly solved, needs to be fixed at its roots and not just have its symptoms solved. If you just solve the symptoms you are fixing some specific scenarios arising due to the problem and not the problem itself.
Let’s take an example of a bug. One of the most common bugs you might find is that a specific object/variable/parameter is undefined. Most common fixes you might come across is a check which checks whether that object/variable/parameter is undefined before proceeding to next set of logic. Here, the “fix” is just solving the symptom of the problem. The problem here is not the error due to the object being undefined. The actual problem is that the object is undefined itself. So the solution is to make sure that the object is never undefined if possible.
Knowing this, you always will go looking for the source of the problem instead of simply focusing on getting rid of the error. As mentioned, this applies to much broader scale and not just for fixing bugs. For instance, it could mean a change in design or even a business decision.
“Get to the source and fix the problem.”- David Goggins
Personally, I think this last tip works well for life in general. It is very abstract in its application. I believe, there are many such lessons or ideas that you learn while coding that can be applied very well in life. And that is a true gift that developers like you and I get to cherish. Cheers!
