GROWTH MINDSET IS KEY
Five of the Most Damaging Attitudes in Software Development
We’ve all had one of these attitudes at some point in our programming career
Based on my years of professional software development, I regard these five attitudes to be the most damaging to your growth.
Let’s get right into it.
1 “I only want to code at work”
If you only took up programming to earn a fat check $$, then you’ll have a hard time.
Sure, you’ll likely earn some good cash, but I’m certain you’ll burn out quickly. Just skimming over the plethora of new JavaScript libraries exhausts me — even though it has stabilized over the last few years.
You need to treat programming as more than just work.
Programming is much more of a professional hobby than a regular job. Simply clocking in at 8 am and out at 4 pm won’t cut it. To truly develop your skills, you’ll need to have a passion for programming. You need to find problem-solving fun and to love challenges — even when it requires you to banging your head against the keyboard for many hours straight.
Great programmers are curious and feel an itch that needs scratching.
2 “Is there a tutorial about that?”
We’ve all been there. Watching (or reading) one tutorial after another. You’ve probably even watched 10 different tutorials on the same topic just to get different perspectives.
The thing is, at some point, you’ll need to stop watching tutorials and go try things out for yourself. You’re not developing your analytical and problem-solving skills by having another person guide you every step of the way.
Instead, try to read documentation and source code from projects that are doing something you want to learn. Also, go read others’ opinions regarding something. It’ll be immensely more valuable to you than a step-by-step guide.
3 “I need to learn a lot of languages”
This line of thought was popularized in the book “The Pragmatic Programmer”. No. You don’t need to learn a new language every year.
Learning a programming language is in many ways similar to learning a regular language.
To master a language, you’ll need to understand its context, culture, and people. Simply getting acquainted with the words (keywords) and grammar (syntax) doesn’t mean you know a language.
For some time, I too wanted to learn lots of different languages and thought any good programmer must know an arbitrary number of languages.
What I found was that I never really got to understand each language’s “culture”. I could write a web application in PHP, Java, C# .NET, JavaScript, and Python. But I was always lacking a deeper understanding of why things were done in certain ways.
Focusing on one back-end, front-end, and database language is completely fine. I’m sure you’ll become a better programmer by doing this. Learning one language well typically allows you to easily transition into a new one.
Also, each language has enough depth and applicable areas for you to be occupied for quite some time anyway.
4 “It’s not my job”
This is exactly the kind of thinking that’ll constrain your growth to a great extend. In multiple ways.
It’s an attitude that’ll get you pigeon-holed and eventually become a career-killer. You’ll get known as the person who only wants to do certain tasks which in turn limits your exposure to new experiences.
You’re at risk if you find yourself repeatedly saying things like:
“The person who wrote this code should fix it”
“I didn’t write this — so I don’t need to fix that glaring bug that’s staring me right in the face”
“I don’t do front-end, ask [person’s name], he might be able to help you”
5 “I want to build it myself”
Okay, I get it. You took a programming job to build cool stuff. Not to just use what others have already built.
But when you’re on a client project and the deadline is approaching, you simply don’t have time to fiddle around with building your own linear regression package, which entails taking into account all the edge cases and whatnot.
Just import that damn package from npm or NuGet and get on with it.
If you want to develop your skills, you’d try to build a similar package at home after work, in your spare time. On the job, you’ll often need to compromise and use what’s already built and tested by others.
What do you think are some of the worst attitudes in software development?
Nicklas Millard is a software development engineer in one of the fastest-growing banks, building mission-critical financial services infrastructure.
Previously, he was a Big4 Senior Tech Consultant developing software for commercial clients and government institutions.
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