I came into the Salesforce development industry knowing nothing, absolutely nothing, about Salesforce: how it was used in business nor how to even develop on it. I was as clueless as a newborn baby seeing the light for the first time — I suppose most of you understand this feeling when tackling a new programming language or framework.

That being said, I was very uncomfortable starting and was afraid that I wouldn’t fare well in this uncharted territory of cloud development.

Boy, was I wrong.

Come my first week of training and I fell in love with this technology almost immediately. I was baffled and bummed that I wasn’t able to cross paths with this powerful tech sooner. …

A successful programmer is not defined by their ability to write good code. Anybody can learn how to do that.

Rather, what defines a good programmer is the individual traits they have that allow them to thrive in the complex environments and situations that they are put in. These skills are intangible. They softly complement the hard, raw skill of programming that allows you to think critically, approach creatively, communicate effectively, and work productively.

I’m still fairly new as a professional programmer, but one would look at my path and consider me to be on a smooth hike to the top of the mountain of what the average person might consider success. To name a few things: I’m on the road to becoming one of the world’s youngest ever Salesforce certified technical architects, became one of the highest performing employees to ever be hired at my company, won a company-wide award for high achievement, broke a company record, am facing a promotion to becoming a technical lead less than a year after being hired, and have been told by my CEO that it is realistic for me to become future CTO of his company if I stay on my path for the years to come. …

Robert Greene’s books never fail to spark a bit of controversy with masterpieces such as his debut book The 48 Laws of Power being dubbed “the sociopath’s bible” followed by The Art of Seduction that is christened to be both a “handbook on the most subtle and effective form of power” and “an indispensable primer on how to take what you want from whomever you want” that’ll leave you walking away feeling like a creep with its goal to play on people’s deepest desires — completely fair if you were to follow these rules to a T.

Despite what you might think, the rules presented in The Art of Seduction are brutally tried and true methods proved to be successful throughout history and if taken piecemeal can prove to be very useful in relationships. …

The Birth of a Legendary Engineer

Without Steve “Woz” Wozniak, this world would have never gotten to appreciate the technological fruits of Apple that revolutionized the personal computer (Apple I/Apple II), the way we listen to music (iPod), and the way we communicate (iPhone). Many people like to hate on Apple products for their exclusivity, but what they need to realize is that no other company I know of has evolved the world of computing more than Apple has by leading the charge on all the aforementioned avenues. …

As I board the plane prepared to be cradled again by the arms of reality after spending 10 days — without technology — participating in community service in Panama, never would I have expected that the conversation I was about to have would alter the trajectory of my life and the way I perceive the world.

I shared a row with two friends I grew close to on this trip. I don’t much remember how the conversation started, but here we were engaging in a discussion on belief, meaning, and the great beyond.

Here I was, an agnostic with quasi new-age spiritual beliefs (think law of attraction, everything happens for a reason, all is connected through realms of energy) having a conversation with a devout Christian girl with unquestioning faith and loyalty in her God and a secular-thinking humanist with remarkable intelligence on his way to becoming an orthopedic surgeon. …

During a talk at Google, former Google, Ooyala, Quora, and Quip engineer Edmond Lau discussed his findings after surveying multiple engineers, C-level executives, investors, and companies about the common factors that made the most reputable and productive engineers so effective.

I heavily resonated with what he shared and believe that every developer can extract immense value from the key metrics he found.

The Primary Factor That Needs to Always Linger at the Back of Your Mind

Impact. Impact. Impact.

That word should be your single most important goal driving development on a daily basis. …

Wait a sec. You’re probably wondering why in the world I’d even go as far as to make the suggestion that nicotine can be used as a brain supplement when it’s so hard to wrap the mind around that nicotine can actually be healthy for the mind.

I know, it’s bizarre. The amount of stigma surrounding nicotine is staggering and convincing. We’re always told how addictive it could be, how detrimental to health it can be, and how devilish this substance is all-around.

But when an overwhelming amount of science presents itself clear as day, that cannot be ignored. It’s something you should make yourself aware of even if it’s counter to everything you know and believe. Challenge your beliefs, look at the raw science and research, and know that everything you know about nicotine will about to be flipped right on top of its head. …

On June 24, 1996, the European Space Agency’s unmanned Ariane 5 rocket exploded only 37 seconds after launch. $370 million and a decade of development were flushed down the drain in a single moment.

The cause? A simple software bug that attempted to store a 64-bit float variable that can represent billions of potential values into a 16-bit integer that can only represent 65,535 potential values. There literally wasn’t enough space allocated to make it into space.

The lesson? It’s the smallest bugs that cause the largest, costliest, and most potentially dangerous issues.

Elephants Don’t Bite, They Just Want to Be Your Friends

When reaching program failure, almost every blatantly obvious mistake reveals itself in code. These are mistakes that cause clearly discernable compiler or runtime errors that unmask their identities through the user interface or on compilation. …