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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
This unique book provides you with a wealth of tips, tricks, best practices, and answers to the day-to-day questions that programmers face in their careers. It is split into three parts: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, providing the knowledge you need to get ahead in programming.
About This Book
- Over 50 essays with practical advice on improving your programming career
- Practical focus gives solutions to common problems, and methods to become a better coder
- Includes advice for existing programmers and those wanting to begin a career in programming
Who This Book Is For
This book is useful for programmers of any ability or discipline. It has advice for those thinking about beginning a career in programming, those already working as a fully employed programmer, and for those working as freelance developers.
What You Will Learn
- Improve your soft skills to become a better and happier coder
- Learn to be a better developer
- Grow your freelance development business
- Improve your development career
- Learn the best approaches to breaking down complex topics
- Have the confidence to charge what you're worth as a freelancer
- Succeed in developer job interviews
In Detail
This is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights that you can use to improve your work, and to give advice in your career.
The book is split up into three topic areas: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, each containing a wealth of practical advice. Coder Skills contains advice for people starting out, or those who are already working in a programming role but want to improve their skills. It includes such subjects as: how to study and understand complex topics, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages. Freelancer Skills contains advice for developers working as freelancers or with freelancers. It includes such subjects as: knowing when to fire a client, and tips for taking over legacy applications. Career Skills contains advice for building a successful career as a developer. It includes such subjects as: how to improve your programming techniques, and interview guides and developer salary negotiation strategies.
Style and approach
This unique book provides over 50 insightful essays full of practical advice for improving your programming career. The book is split into three broad sections covering different aspects of a developer's career. Each essay is self-contained and can be read individually, or in chunks.
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Seitenzahl: 331
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: July 2017
Production reference: 1280717
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78728-703-7
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Credits
Author
Jordan Hudgens
Acquisition Editor
Ben Renow-Clarke
Content Development Editor
Radhika Atitkar
Technical Editor
Joel D'souza
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Pratik Shirodkar
Production Coordinator
Arvindkumar Gupta
Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
About the Author
Jordan Hudgens is the CTO and founder of DevCamp, where he leads instruction and curriculum development for all the DevCamp and Bottega code schools around the US.
As a developer over the past decade, Jordan has traveled the world building applications and training individuals on a wide variety of topics, including Ruby development, big data analysis, and software engineering.
Jordan focuses on project-driven education as opposed to theory-based development. This style of teaching is conducive to learning how to build real-world products that adhere to industry best practices.
Additionally, Jordan has published multiple books on programming and computer science along with developing training curriculum for Learn.co, DevCamp, and AppDev on the topics, namely Ruby on Rails, Java, AngularJS, NoSQL, API development, and algorithms.
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To my sweet and loving daughter, Kristine. I cherished every moment of writing this book at coffee shops all over the country with you!
Preface
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights and methodologies that you can use to improve the work you produce, and to give advice in your day-to-day career.
Focusing on your life skills and the key soft skills we need in the modern world, Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career will help you find your path to being a better and a happier coder.
What this book covers
Part 1, Coder Skills, contains advice for people starting out in a coding career, or those who are already working as in a programming role but want to improve their general skills. It includes such subjects as how to study and understand complex topics, defining deep work and what it means for developers, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages.
Part 2, Freelancer Skills, contains advice for developers working as freelancers and trying to manage their careers and bid on new tenders. It includes such subjects as knowing when to fire a client, practical tips for taking over legacy applications, and a guide to automating client update messages.
Part 3, Career Skills, contains advice for having a successful career as a developer. It provides information on how to advance your career, and practical tips, such as interview guides. It includes such subjects as how to practice programming techniques and improve as a developer, how to balance best practice and creativity as a developer, and developer salary negotiation strategies.
Who this book is for
This book is useful for programmers of any ability or discipline. It has advice for those thinking about beginning a career in programming, those already working as a fully employed programmer, and for those working as freelance developers.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Returning to our case study of memorizing CSS elements, let's look at the border attributes available in CSS3: border."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Here in the image I would move a task from being a To-Do, to being Assigned, to Working, to Under Review, and finally to Finished."
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Part I. Coder Skills
Chapter 1. Discovering the Tipping Point for Developers
If you've been programming for a while, a question that has most likely crossed your mind is this:
"Am I a good developer?"
Before we go on, let me share a little secret with you… Every developer, even senior developers, have insecurities when it comes to programming. Few individuals like to share that information, mainly because confidence and even arrogance has become a developer stereotype for some stupid reason.
However, I won't BS you. I can tell you that the more experience I have as a coder, the more I realize how much more there is to learn and how far I still have to go.
Tipping point for developers
With all that being said, I want to discuss topic of defining the tipping point for developers, which is essentially the point at which a developer goes from a beginner to a pro. Since this topic is a bit abstract, it's not possible to point to a specific point in time and say:
"Here it is, this is when it all clicks and makes sense."
There's not a sentinel moment when programming mastery occurs. It's different for every individual.
My own experience
I remember when I was originally learning programming. Understanding the syntax and context did not come easy for me. It seemed like I spent 99% of my time looking things up and copying and pasting code from others just to get my programs running.
The doubt machine
Needless to say, my confidence as a programmer was very low in the beginning. I kept being plagued by nagging doubts, such as:
And the negative thoughts continued from there
The painful process
If you're a new developer maybe some of this sounds familiar to you, or maybe it doesn't and I simply lacked confidence. Either way, I trudged along, trying everything I could think of to improve as a developer:
However, back when I was originally learning how to code, the online resources weren't quite as good as they are today.
The tipping point(s)
So, what did the trick and pushed me over the edge to become a professional developer? None of those things… and all those things. I persevered through project after project and I consumed every training resource I could find. And slowly something amazing started to happen:
"Everything started to make sense."
The first tipping point
Even though it was a while ago, I still remember the moment my first development tipping point happened. I was sitting in front of my computer in a coffee shop and working on a web application.
A few hours went by and I stopped dead in my tracks, realizing that I had just spent the afternoon building a project and hadn't looked up a single code snippet. It wasn't like I programmed the space station, the project was incredibly basic. However, it was one of the most exciting moments I can remember in my life.
The second tipping point
As great as that was, I still had very far to go. I remember the next moment when I felt like I reached another key milestone. Even though my confidence had increased as a developer, the thought of anyone seeing my code was a very scary thought. However, I had started to build my freelance business and a client (who was also a developer) asked me to perform a pair programming session with him.
He had run into a bug with the program we were building and asked me to jump on a screen sharing session where we could work on the project at the same time. Honestly, I was scared to death when he asked. I had never coded in front of anyone before and the thought of doing it with this client pretty much gave me a panic attack. However, I didn't really have a choice in the matter so I started the session with him. After a few minutes of nervousness, I started to relax and to my surprise not only did I not make a fool of myself, I actually figured out the bug in his code and got the feature working.
The secret
So, what was my secret to getting over the hump and going from a beginner to a professional developer? Unfortunately, there is no easy-to-follow recipe. However, there is a process that is guaranteed to work. And the process isn't specific to becoming a programmer, it's the same whether you want to be a developer or a professional athlete… it's hard and smart work.
The book
In the book The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell gives countless case studies of what it takes for individuals to achieve mastery in a specific field. The key comes down to how dedicated an individual is to a specific skill. The book postulates that it takes around 10,000 hours for an individual to become a true master of whatever they're pursuing.
I'm not sure I believe in the 10,000-hour rule, mainly because there are a large number of variables when it comes to learning a topic or skill and rarely does a single rule apply for all fields. Also, I think the quality of your practice makes a significant difference.
For example, if you're learning how to play the violin: 5,000 hours of practice with a world class instructor is probably equivalent to 10,000 hours trying to figure it out yourself. However, with all that being said, one thing cannot be denied, the key to mastery is hard work.
The solution
I'm sorry if you were hoping for a quick fix. I can tell you from experience that there are no shortcuts to becoming a developer. You need to learn:
Becoming a great developer is not an easy road. However, be comforted in the fact that you are 100% in control of how skilled you will become. The formula is straightforward: the harder you work, the better you will get. So, get your hands on all the material you can find on the language and framework you want to learn. Work through challenging applications and you will be well on your way to mastery.
And soon you will be able to have the exciting moment of clarity when everything starts to click.
Chapter 2. Are Developers Born or Made? – Debunking the Myth of Prodigies
When talking to development students, I've discovered one topic that constantly arises in conversation. And that topic is the misconceived notion that great developers are born with a special programming gene. So, let's walk through the question are developers born or made, from a practical perspective.
Are prodigies real?
Before tackling this question, let's take a step back and discuss the topic of prodigies. Because whenever someone thinks that a certain group of individuals are born with superhuman-like talent, they're essentially saying that these special people are prodigies.
The Mozart case study
But are prodigies real? Let's take a look at one of the most famous prodigies of all time, Mozart. At the age of 5, Mozart was playing concert grade music to the royal family. Surely, this would qualify Mozart as a prodigy, right?
In his book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, researcher Anders Ericsson dispels a number of commonly held prodigy myths. He had this to say about Mozart:
"If you compare the kind of music pieces that Mozart can play at various ages to today's Suzuki-trained children, he is not exceptional. If anything, he's relatively average."
In his book, Ericsson dedicates a full chapter to debunking the concept of prodigies. And in each case, he illustrates that the individuals achieved their respective levels of success through massage amounts of work.
Are developers born or made?
Extending the Mozart case study, let's discuss how this applies to developers. Whenever we see a skilled coder it's easy to think that they were born with the innate ability to build applications and that learning new languages and frameworks comes easy to them.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Over the years I've known more developers than I can count and I have yet to find a single one that was a born developer. I know programmers that work for Google and Amazon, along with computer science professors who specialize in research that boggles my mind to think about. And as amazing as all of these individuals are, each one of them became a great developer through hard work and dedication.
The tipping point
In Chapter 1, Discovering the Tipping Point for Developers I've discussed the tipping point for developers. The longer I teach and the more I work on my own coding skills, the more I'm convinced that the key to excellence is as straightforward as focused practice.
If you want to become a skilled developer badly enough, and you're willing to:
You're going to wake up one day and realize that everything is clicking and that you've become a professional programmer.
Why we love the prodigy myth
Before I end this chapter, I want to address a subtle issue that explains the reason of why we, as humans, love the idea of prodigies.
The concept of prodigies, individuals born with a natural ability to be successful at a certain skill, such as sports, math, or programming, can be detrimental to our own success. This belief is dangerous because it causes our minds to have negative responses to failure.
For example, if you're an aspiring developer who thinks that programmers are born and not made, when you come across a bug that you can't seem to figure out or a feature you can't build, your first reaction might be:
I guess I wasn't born to do be a developer.
Or:
I wish I had talent like XYZ programmer, everything seems to come so easy to him.
If you catch yourself with thoughts like these, remind yourself that prodigies aren't real.
Developers achieve greatness through smart work and perseverance. The 10,000-hour rule from the Tipping Point book by Malcolm Gladwell may not be exactly accurate. However, it does give a general guide for how much work is required to reach a level of mastery.
If you feel like you weren't born with the "developer gene", go and knock out 10,000 hours of focused practice on building applications. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that you'll become so good, that other people will look at you, and they'll think… that you were just born this way.
Chapter 3. Do You Have to Be a Genius to Be a Developer?
We've discussed the topic of whether great developers are born or made. And in this chapter, we're going to look at a similar topic from a different angle. And we're going to answer the question do you have to be a genius to be a developer?
Because of the near-magical nature of coding, one of the most common remarks I hear from individuals who hear what I do is:
"Oh wow, you're so smart!"
In fact, just recently I traveled to meet with a group of developers and the head of the company introduced me by saying:
"This is Jordan, he's just here to be smart."
I know that when people say things like this it comes from a good place. However, it bothers me. And it bothers me for a couple reasons:
The running man
I'm going to get off my soap box for a moment and discuss the life of Steve Prefontaine. If you've never heard of him before, Prefontaine was one of the world's greatest runners during his time. Before tragically dying in a car accident at 24 years old, he had already broken seven track world records.
During his climactic rise to success, many people would try to compliment Prefontaine by saying how talented he was, and by calling him a prodigy, such as on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
However, he was famous for getting furious at people for this type of statement. He said that his success had literally nothing to do with talent. In fact, he said he wasn't born with any innate ability as a runner. Instead he credits 100% of his success with his legendary work ethic.
Do you have to be a genius to be a developer?
It's important to take the same approach that Prefontaine took as developers. If you fall into the trap of thinking that only geniuses can become good coders, it will most likely lead to quitting when tasks become challenging. This is because our minds constantly are searching for ways to work less. And if you believe that being a genius is a requirement for development, you will have a built-in excuse for faltering on your developer learning journey.
The way the mind works
In a comprehensive educational study published in Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/), kids were broken into two groups and taken through some academic assignments. Both groups scored around the same for the assignments. One of the groups were praised by their parents and teachers, and the focus of the compliments centered around how smart and talented the kids were.
The second group of students were complimented in a different manner. Instead of complimenting students on their innate ability, students were complimented on how hard they worked.
After going through this cycle of compliments, the same two groups of students were presented with new, and very challenging assignments.
The first group of students, the ones that had been told that they were brilliant, ended up giving up and not completing the tasks that were assigned to them. However, the second group of students, the ones that were complimented on their hard work, performed dramatically better than group 1.
The reason
So why did two groups of students have such different results when, by all appearances, the students had the same level of actual skill?
The researchers concluded that the students from group 1 felt like the top priority was maintaining their genius status. So, they quit the second assignment early because they didn't want to look bad and tarnish the genius label that they had been given.
However, the second group of students didn't feel the pressure to maintain a genius status. Instead, they wanted to maintain their new reputations as hard workers. With this mindset, the second set of students worked through the challenging topics instead of giving up.
A smarter approach
So, instead of taking the mindset that you need to be a genius to become a developer, take the mindset that best developers are also the hardest working developers. With this approach, your potential for skill is literally limitless. You are 100% in control of how good you will become as a coder. And your success will completely be determined how hard (and how smart) you are willing to work.
Chapter 5. Effective Study Practices for Developers
Let's imagine that you're back in school and midterm exams are coming up. How would you study? Some common approaches might be:
Those all sound like effective study practices. However, cognitive research has shown that many of the traditional study patterns that students have followed for decades simply do not work.
I didn't make up that list of study patterns. That's exactly what I used to do in preparing for exams. However, I discovered (after failing a number of tests) that these strategies failed miserably when it came to helping me to truly learn new concepts.
Why traditional study habits don't work
This type of approach to studying doesn't work because our minds don't function like computers. A computer can take in information and then spit it back out. However, our minds are more relational in nature.
