

How to be a Successful Software Engineer - darkhelmetlive
http://blog.darkhax.com/2010/11/16/how-to-be-a-successful-software-engineer

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pluies
A post on how to be a successful software engineer from someone who left
school two years ago... Isn't a bit preposterous to write such patronizing
articles so early? :)

(Of course this criticism comes from someone still in school, so you should
take it with a grain of salt. Or appreciate the irony.)

~~~
strlen
When I was 13, I thought I was an excellent programmer because I could use
inline assembly in Pascal to put my graphics card into VESA mode and draw
circles. I gave everybody advice, with absolute confidence. My geocities web
page was full of tips and tutorials.

Now, at 27 I think there are many things I should improve upon and many things
I have to learn. Isn't it sad how much worse I've gotten in those 14 years?

(For the sarcasm impaired: < <http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1343> >)

~~~
MaysonL
At 64 I'm finally learning Lisp. Ah the wasted years.

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SkyMarshal
I started reading and my first thoughts were, 'yeah, yeah, seen this all
before, newb software engineer thinks he's the first person to realize all
this stuff...'

Then I hit 'Be Asynchronous', and thought it was brilliant. This is the
solution to the multitasking craze, a systems-term with business buzzword
potential I can actually get on board with. This is what Harvard Business
Review and MBA lemmings should have been advocating all those years ago -
don't multitask, be asynchronous. Prioritize, and renice the lower priority
stuff and push it into background processes where it gets CPU cycles only if
the high priority stuff isn't busy. Get the same stuff done without running
yourself ragged while maintaining the capacity to achieve flow and think
thoroughly and deeply about the higher priority stuff.

Nice work. You should write an article on just Multitasking vs. Asynchronous,
then send it off to Harvard Business Review. They've published a few articles
lately critiquing multitasking, but without clear next steps. Show them the
way forward.

 _"Be asynchronous

This one is weird, but I wanted to talk about it anyway.

Actually use todo lists and RSS feeds. Like email, these are asynchronous
systems. You send an email, subscribe to a feed, or write down a todo item,
and you don’t worry about it too much anymore. Sure, you check your email the
next day or read your feeds before bed, but you don’t have to keep checking a
website for new content or be sitting staring at the “John is typing…” text on
Skype. You can dedicate time to dealing with things, write them down when you
think of them, and deal with them in the time you’ve set aside. The more you
can get out of your brain into some other system the better. This allows you
to focus on the task at hand. Later, when the time comes to deal with email,
or read feeds, you can focus on that.

These are some things that apply more to computer related fields , but I list
them because they’ve really helped me out."_

~~~
darkhelmetlive
Thanks! There's always more to learn, and I'm definitely not the first to
realize these things.

Glad you found some of it insightful. I'll take you up on your suggestion, and
I've added the "Multitask vs Async" post idea to my list.

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Hominem
hahah he left out "write blog posts about NoSql and Node.js" and "talk about
how awsome your macbook pro is"

~~~
darkhelmetlive
I knew I forgot something... :)

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kertap
I really liked this article.

I've been using dropbox in much the same way you use Google docs. I like that
added feature that the files are available on my computer and I can easily get
them through the drop box site if I need to.

I've also been using my ipad in much the same way as you use your kindle. I've
read so many books since I got it.

I could probably increase my online participation. I think this is my 6th
comment on HN. I should really fix up my blog too.

~~~
darkhelmetlive
Thanks!

Dropbox is another tool I use, mainly for quick file transfers. I used it a
lot in school, where I would print out finished assignments (have to hand
something in I guess), but then put it on Dropbox as well in case something
happened to the hard copy (like I stupidly forgot it at home...).

The iPad is good for reading too, though I imagine my eyes would like the
Kindle better. It's really easy to stare at for hours. I want to get an iPad
for reading Instapaper stuff and RSS feeds.

What's your blog?

~~~
sudont
What's your experience with the Kindle's screen? I'm pretty much sold on it,
but have a lot of image-based PDFs that wouldn't convert to the native format.

~~~
darkhelmetlive
The screen is really nice. Easy to read, changes pages pretty quick. Most of
my experience with it has been kindle purchased books or simple converted
PDFs. If you've image based PDFs (I'm assuming ones where each page is
basically an image of a page, instead of text), I don't know it would work too
well. I tried looking at things where it wouldn't convert them but you either
had to look at small text or zoom in weird (or maybe there was no zoom...can't
remember exactly).

