The Best Advice I Have Ever Been Given
From one developer to another
Here at Bilue we have collated the best advice that our developers have received over their many years of experience.
When asking how to do something, tell the person what you have already tried
When someone is asking a question it is really frustrating if it sounds like they haven’t tried to solve the problem themselves. You also need to establish what they know about the topic so you don’t start at a too basic or too advanced level.
When asking a question it is best to explain what you have tried so far and where you got stuck, that way the person answering your question can give you a targeted answer to get you over the next part of your problem solving journey.
Katie Barnett — 12 years experience
Time box a certain problem so you are not so far into depth that you waste the time
Zohvin Singh Basnyat — 5 years experience
Having an opinion is a good thing but it does not mean it is always right
In development there is not always one right way, for the problem or project you are working on there is not one size fits all.
Kruti Garga — 8 years experience
There is an infinite way of solving a problem, but can you tell why you chose this way over others ?
It will help you justify the solution to others and also make you look at other ways so you know the one you choose is a bit better than the precedent one
Mehdi Peluffe
You can’t just walk in and take a dump on the desk, you have to offer them a wet-one
If you are delivering bad news you need to offer some options on how you might clean up this mess that you have just delivered.
Craig Edwards — 20+ years experience
You can only do what you think is best at the time — there is always a possibility that you might be wrong.
No matter what equation or method you are using there is a chance that it would be wrong.
“We never are right. We can only be sure we’re wrong” — Richard Feynman
Clean code — There are underlying principals
- It needs to be logically sound
- It is maintainable (SOLID principles)
- It is readable
Manendra De Mel — 6 years experience
In application development, simplicity and readability has a higher priority than performance.
I was writing code that was always trying to have the best performance, but writing in a functional way is always better that others can read.
CPU resources are cheaper than developer resources!
Ehsan Heidari — 7 years experience
It is better to write down a specific problem and ask what to do next rather than solving the big problem.
When tasks are huge or new, start with the smallest part that can be done easily and after finishing that part you will be more confident to finish the scary task step by step.
It is helpful to find a scenario for the problem to explain to others as sometimes you might solve the problem while breaking it down!
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”― Henry Ford
The difference between a developer and an engineer is the why
The difference is an engineer knows why to do something rather than a developer just does it, an engineer thinks about what’s the best way to do it and how engineer the task before doing it.
Narges Baratali — 5 years experience
If you are having a hard time solving a problem, get up and walk away.
Walk around the block, clear your head and when you come back you might have solved the problem. Sometimes we get so stuck on a problem we can get around it with a fresh mind.
Daniel Slone — 7 years experience
If you are starting with something new, maybe you can look at something that already exists in the codebase and get an idea from there.
Continuous effort might not be advantageous; instead, we should occasionally take a break to increase the productivity
Vikash Parajuli — 8 years experience
Having a book reading habit can help you a lot
That is how I have found my architecture knowledge, during your whole life you will work in 5–10 companies or projects maximum, books are where people share their experiences across different projects. That is how I also share with others.
Work on the critical path
What is the critical path is what you need to work out with your team. The critical path is not always the biggest problem but it is the most important. I have mostly seen projects fail because they haven’t solved the critical path.
Fahad Kundi
If your boss or client asks you to do something, drop everything and get on it!
Developers like to feel like they are independant, but sometimes you need to take direction.
Rowan Gontier — 6 years experience
Please share in the comments with the best advice you have ever received!
