Letters To A New Developer

Dear reader, Welcome to the last letter. I couldn’t have imagined what would happen when I penned my first letter 5 years ago. (I still think you should learn version control, for the record.) This blog outlasted two jobs. 280+ posts and 220,000+ visitors later, this project has changed my life in so many ways. … Continue reading Thank you →

Dear new developer, When you see a senior engineer who knows the code base like the back of her hand maneuver around it at the speed of thought, it sure looks like magic. When a mysterious bug pops up and you spend a couple of hours trying to replicate it, but then an old hand … Continue reading It’s not magic (part 2) →

Dear new developer, I remember the first time I pulled up MapQuest in the 2000s. I looked for directions to a place I’d never been. A custom map popped up, which was cool. But even more impressive was the turn by turn directions. I printed them both out and followed the instructions. That felt like … Continue reading It’s not magic (part 1) →

Dear new developer, Over the last twenty years, I’ve had two work modes. I’ve either been at a company for a number of years (3, 8, 2, and 3) or been a contractor/consultant working for clients for weeks or months. Both modes have upsides; I wrote before about the benefits of a small consulting company. … Continue reading The Benefits of...

This is a guest post from Doug Durham. Enjoy. Dear new developer, It’s very easy to throw terms around in our (or any) industry. In our hurried culture, we latch onto words or phrases that may not fully encapsulate their original intent. I’m afraid that is what has happened to the label of “software engineer”. … Continue reading What We Mean When...

Dear new developer, Sometimes you have to send a difficult or awkward email. But, before you send it, think about whether it should be an email or if an in-person conversation, phone call, or video call is best. If it is an awkward topic, it’ll be an awkward conversation too, but the additional information bandwidth … Continue reading Sending a...

Dear new developer, I was out for a run the other day. People walk dogs along my running route and I had noticed a few days before a bag of dog poop. I had run on by, assuming someone was planning to grab it on the way back from their walk. But then I saw … Continue reading Pick up the dog poop →

This is a guest post from Manish. Enjoy. Dear new developer, As leaders, we often need to hire new talent to expand our resources, replace team members, or fill vacant positions. While technical skills are important, there are also several non-technical traits that can be equally or even more valuable. Consider the following factors when …...

This is a guest post from Jamie Tanna. Enjoy. Dear new developer, Our jobs and lives are full of repetition, and one of the beauties of being developers is that we can take steps to automate away some of the repetition. Learning to automate, or at least minimise, repetition optimises your work. You can get … Continue reading Learn how to...

This is a guest post from Aaron Kardell. Enjoy. Dear new developer, I’m enjoying the season I’m in. That’s the simple phrase I find myself conveying to others lately. I have 21 years of post-college professional experience. Except for a handful of short-term consulting gigs, all of that has been working on something I founded … Continue reading...