12 Engineer Habits
Listen
- What do senior-engineers tell you?
- What do new employees have to say?
- What did you hear in a podcast?
Observe
- What do other companies do?
- Read your teammate’s code.
Log
- STORAGE IS CHEAP
- If you’d write “print” and write a comment, why not log it
- Save git commit messages for things that are unusual. (Squash the rest)
- Save it in a separate NoSQL table/db
Document
- Write it out first, don’t edit it until later
- If you finding yourself drafting a slack message, please post it to Jira.
Think Big Picture
- Don’t get attached to your software
- Wait until the 3rd time you repeat yourself to abstract.
- Talk with your teammates
- Be “present” during standup. (this might mean you need to come prepared to standup)
Set Boundaries
- Stay home when you are sick.
- Know when to keep working and when to take a step back
- This helps you measure your progress
- Again, don’t get attached to a project, don’t get attached to your code.
Automate
- Don’t waste time and energy
- It’s always easier to start with a linter, than to add one after the fact.
- Save your mental space for what’s important
- It helps you “think like a programmer”
- A computer can organize better than you can.
Try New Things
- Docker is scary, but if learning it now will help you later, learn it.
- Dive in head first.
Discuss
- Ask your coworkers what they think about something
- Until everyone is on the same page
Have Fun
- Grab lunch with a co-worker
- Post cat videos in #random on slack
Reflect
Plan
- Backtracking leads to burnout
- You can always abandon a plan