What a great article! Dependency management is always such a pain. It's nice to read about ways to make it easier.

> And whatever you do, don't impose onerous procedures on all of your devs because one of them screws up on a regular basis!

This is a really important point. Creating processes for the lowest common denominator just stifles every other developer.

Seconded. Sometimes the answer to a mistake being made is not to take on a boatload of process in an attempt to make sure it can't happen again, it's to slap the hands of the offending person and say don't do that.

Agreed. The article mentions influential developers like this who are stuck in the past.

I feel like whiteboarding is really essential when talking about how code should be written, but most whiteboard tests are about writing code on the whiteboard. There's a big difference between the two activities.

Good point. The whiteboard should be used to discuss the problem and the solution. Not the actual code.

This exactly nails the point in the article about checklists and how you can't really create effective quantitative metrics for developers.

I have read in the past about developers using various quantitative measures (number of commits, for example) to measure their own work. I think in that scenario it's different because the extrinsic reward is driven by intrinsic motivation -- you're unlikely to try and game your own metrics I suppose?

> you're unlikely to try and game your own metrics I suppose?

You'd be surprised.

I agree with the other comment that you should probably talk to your manager about getting a promotion if you haven't.

Networking is also not an insignificant thing. You may want to take those events your boss takes you to a little more seriously. I shunned networking the first few years of my career to my detriment. I am playing catch up now, but I've found that a strong network can also help you grow in your career... it just may be with a different company.

You want the skills to do a great job, but a network will help you get the opportunities to fulfill your potential.

I'm sorry you hate the avatar! I get lots of mixed feedback about it, but overall the feedback has been positive. I accept that I can't make everyone happy unfortunately.

I am trying to avoid walls of text, but I think it is an unfair statement to say that people don't like to read. People are reading the same amount of text regardless of whether pictures exist or not.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the book, but there's one on brain science that discusses how people process text. Letters are still images as far as our eyes and brain are concerned. There's an extra processing step to turn one type of image (letters) into another type of image (what the letters are describing). This is exhausting and throwing in images act as "taking a break" even if that break is only a second or two.

I initially thought "cartoon dude is condescending!" Then my brain immediately said "lighten up Francis" and now I like cartoon dude.

I hate the cartoons too. There's something very condescending about them, smattered throughout your blog post.

dito! the cartoon dude is terrible... made me not read the post.

It can be annedoctic, but same here!

Just wanted to say I really liked the little cartoons. Do you do them all yourself?

I wish I was that talented. One of my friends is an incredible artist and I asked her to make those for me.

I'd like to chime in and agree -- the cartoon dudes are mildly amusing. It might be disconcerting that they are so large, but then I ended up un-zooming most of the page, so it might just be PEBCAK at my desk. ;)

I can see the intention, but it had the exact opposite effect for me. My eyes were drawn to these images like some blinking ad banner, and I got annoyed about how it draws my attention away from the content.

Your point on evidence is dead on. This is an entirely anecdotal piece which is why I titled it "Programming Has Changed My Life" rather than "Programming Can Change Your Life Too".

The latter claim requires a lot more research because it is a huge leap.

Whether I would have developed critical thinking skills naturally can be up to debate. The argument for programming being the factor is because computers are black and white in the early days. Code works or code doesn't work. We don't always get that direct feedback in human interaction.

>Whether I would have developed critical thinking skills naturally can be up to debate. The argument for programming being the factor is because computers are black and white in the early days. Code works or code doesn't work. We don't always get that direct feedback in human interaction.

Glad I refreshed before I posted a similar comment! Feedback in programming has quick and usually exacting results, giving you more feedback per unit time to tune your critical thinking process.

That's very very true. However, "fair pricing" is mentioned because companies tend to use the term in their marketing explanations for raising prices. In free markets, it is also the responsibility of consumers to understand not only the prices they pay today, but the prices they allow companies to set tomorrow.

Yikes! I just got a new monitor and realized what everyone else in the world was seeing. That WAS terrible. I hope you find the new color scheme less painful.