Be a Thankful Developer

You’ll find that thanking people for doing things you appreciate tends to make them want to do more of those things. So even if you’re a purely selfish individual, you should consider employing the tactic of (sincerely) thanking the people that help you to be successful. It is, after all, in your own best interests. And of course, don’t limit your gratitude to purely technical individuals. You’re probably grateful for some things non-developers do, too.

Some concrete things you can do that cost you nothing but can help show your gratitude for those who help make you successful or make your life easier:

• Add a few claps to a Medium post (at left or on the bottom)
• Vote up a StackOverflow Answer that helped you (and the question!)
• Rate a podcast you enjoy on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you found it.
• Star a GitHub repository
• Post a tweet and mention whatever resource you’re appreciating
• Send an email (but trust me, public kudos have a great deal of value, so praise in public when you can)

This week happens to be Thanksgiving in the United States, which has inspired me to write this. I’m thankful to all of the great friends I know in the developer community. I’ve worked with a lot of great developers and a lot of great people in my career so far. In the spirit of being specific, I’d like to thank Jeremy Miller for his hard work on StructureMap, a library I’ve used for years that has really improved the quality of many applications I’ve written. Thanks, Jeremy! You rock!

And while I’m at it, I’d also like to thank you for reading this, whether you came here from my weekly developer tips email, podcast, twitter, or just over the web. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you’ve found it helpful. Leave a comment to thank someone who’s helped you, or to link to your own tweet or post about showing some appreciation. I read all comments; please share any other ways you know of to quickly show appreciation for those who deserve it!

Some sites, publications, and resources have donate or tip buttons, or support patrons via patreon.com. Of course, if you’re so inclined, you can show your appreciation this way, too. If a site has sponsors or advertisers you purchase from, be sure to mention you saw them on the site in question, and that you’re a fan. It can often be difficult to quantify value for sponsorships, and even a few enthusiastic mentions from customers can go a long way toward keeping a sponsorship going.

PS — If you enjoy my podcast, I’d really appreciate your 5-star reviews. If you don’t think it’s worth a 5-star review, then I appreciate your email to let me know how I can make it better. :)

Originally published at ardalis.com in 2016. If you enjoyed this, please leave some applause and consider sharing this with your own audience.