The Code Doesn’t Lie.
“The tape doesn’t lie” — Mark Caastevens
I found that quote in So Good They Can’t Ignore You and it instantly resonated with me.
Your output is all that matters. At the end of the day, you need to have something to show.
Mark Caastevens isn’t the only person saying this. I have read variations by several famous people.
Steve Jobs:
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.
DHH in A good day’s work:
Look at the progress of the day towards the end and ask yourself: “Have I done a good day’s work?”
Good Day’s Work
I am not asking you to kill yourself to have something at any cost. After all, lines of code is proven to be an unreliable measure. Jeff Atwood says so.
So, what am I trying to say here? I am asking you to have something at the end of the day but also not base it on lines of code.
Actually, I am not asking you to do anything at all. Good day’s work can be anything.
There will be days when you’ll write only 2 lines of code. And there will be days when a 1 line bug will take hours to fix.
At these times, the good day’s work isn’t the code but what you learned that day.
Write about the hurdles
Writing does 2 things for you:
- It leaves a log for you. You will eventually forget how you fixed that nasty bug. Writing (and linking to solutions involved) will help you fix the bug next time.
- It will improve your communication. Which is one of the most important qualities in our industry.
Go ahead and create a blog for this. If you’re shy, start with a private text file.
Open your editor at start of the day, write some code, remember your lessons! Because code doesn’t lie.
