3 Mindsets I’ve Worked On This Year As A Software Engineer

at Greenfield

There are a lot of things we can work on as Software Engineer. We can work on refining our coding skills and logic, our ability to create accessible UIs, and a lot more.

What I will be sharing with you are the core things I’ve worked on most this year. It is not mainly on the coding layer, it is on another layer or another side of the spectrum.

Drop The Ego So We Can Go

In programming, there are a lot of approaches to how we can solve something. We can do A or we can do B to achieve it. One of the problems in programming or even in life is our ego. When our ego starts running it is often harder to accept feedbacks from other people like our teammates. Our ego usually prevents us from being able to accept that there are better solutions — much optimized and cleaner in the task we are dealing with. We wanted still to follow what we think is right even if isn’t anymore.

I’ve worked on managing my ego by being open-minded to different approaches. When my teammates correct me on my pull requests, I try my best to learn as much as possible by creating healthy discussions.

By dropping my ego, I noticed that the task progress much faster. And if I still push and not be open to changes, the task gets slower.

Drop the ego, so we can all go. Move forward!

Fundamentals To Adapt

Every week or month there’s always a new kid in town. A new library, framework, practices, or even new technology. There are a lot of updates that happen during those spans. I’ve noticed that these updates will always be there and if I catch them out every time it will be tiring and I might get lost.

I’ve worked on getting back to the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript this year. I wanted to continue working with the web and these technologies are the ones I’ll be spending much of the time and so it makes sense to me to work more on them. By working on their fundamentals, I’ve witnessed that I am much more able to adapt to different structures, problems, and tasks. And if I get introduced to new technology, the learning curve isn’t that high anymore since I knew how to navigate around it.

I am still in the process of relearning some of the basics or the fundamentals. I still see a lot of areas to develop in.

It’s okay to do advanced techniques or even use different technology. But know that there are always evolving. And most of the time evolution of something doesn’t mean it throws away its fundamental form.

The Fastest Way Is To Slow Things Down

Often times we wanted to work like some sort of robot. We tend to disregard how tiring some days are. We spend almost how many hours sitting in front of our desk.

However, I noticed that the more I push myself when I feel I’m not progressing slow down more. My thinking usually is when I spend the number of X hours here in front of my computer I will soon be able to get it. Don’t misinterpret it, there’s nothing wrong with pushing yourself from time to time. Sometimes it’s the only way for you to really know what you are capable of. I’m speaking from a productivity perspective whereas it’s much easier to move fast when you try to rest.

I’ve noticed that the more I spend time working on a problem on my desk is the more I don’t understand it. There were a lot of times whereby resting I was able to move faster. It may sound counterintuitive but it really works! The more I rest, the faster I am able to progress.

Bringing It All Together

Some of you might be surprised as to why are these things not directly related to coding itself? You might be looking for some coding approaches or best practices in here and yet you found none.

The reason is these 3 things will be part of your core skills. These things once developed or applied will naturally affect how you do the work, how you will be able to enjoy the work and do extraordinary things. That’s the side effects of these things. And it’s a positive side effect!

What are the mindsets you’ve worked on this year? Let me know in the comment section! Otherwise, hope this article helps you in your journey!

Happy coding!

May you reach dreams.