5 things I have learned in 20 years of programming

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Erik Dietrich wrote this piece about his experiences working in software development industry. The demand for programmers has grown so dramatically over the last 4-5 decades that the number of programmers is always doubling every five years.

As a result, a programmer with 5 years of experience has more industry tenure than half of the entire industry.

The following are the things author considers to be the most important lessons and takeaways from a 20 year long programming career.

  • Duplication of knowledge is the worst
  • Code is a liability
  • Senior developers: trust but verify
  • TDD is legit, and it’s a game-changer
  • Evidence is king

We liked: > Get yourself used to running experiments, rather than loudly expressing and doubling down on your opinions. This has the immediate value of empirically validating your thinking.

Use this advice (or don’t) in good health. Nice one!

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Tags programming learning miscellaneous how-to