✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays • Buttondown

buttondown.email · 1,168 words · saved by 3 readers

Someone recently asked me if I had advice for early-career programmers. At first I thought this was a silly question. I only entered the workforce ten years ago; many of my newsletter subscribers have been programming for longer than I've been alive! Then I went and read some "advice for starting programmer" essays and thought of some things they missed. So here's thirteen bits of advice for early-career programmers. Some of it is contradictory. People don't listen to me because I'm a good programmer, they listen to me because I'm a good writer. The same is true of pretty much everybody you'll read. This doesn't mean you should automatically reject everything, but it means you should carefully think about it and evaluate how it applies to your situation. And take any argument about "objective truth" with a grain of salt: there is very little about software that's been scientifically studied, and most of the research is inconclusive. But also don't worry too hard about getting "tricked"

December 19, 2023 Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays From a person who really shouldn't be giving others advice. Someone recently asked me if I had advice for early-career programmers. At first I thought this was a silly question. I only entered the workforce ten years ago; many of my newsletter subscribers have been programming for longer than I've been alive! Then I went and read some "advice for starting programmer" essays and thought of some things they missed. So here's thirteen bits of advice for early-career programmers. Some of it is contradictory. P

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading