97 Things Every Programmer Should Know is a good read. I’ll probably pick out a few essays and flesh out how I’d like to apply them in my work and spare coding time. But this being January 1, I’d like to point out The Professional Programmer by Robert C. Martin as the one I keep returning to in my mind.
Specifically, this:
If you are a professional, then you are responsible for your own career. You are responsible for reading and learning. You are responsible for staying up to date with the industry and the technology. Too many programmers feel that it is their employer’s job to train them. Sorry, this is just dead wrong.
This is something that I’ve lacked throughout my career. It seems larger employers are better about training; in fact, in my time at United Airlines, we took a few classes with Object Mentor to help with our Java skills. I knew a little more about object-oriented programming after taking that course.
Seeking out the “right thing” to pursue in the off hours is both necessary, and a loaded question. There is no “right thing” the pursue; there is “what we are doing in our day jobs today”, and “what the hive mind of web developers believes are good solutions to their problems”.
It’s up to us as individuals to understand what problems are being solved, and why. Then, to actually try to apply these problems to our domains. To the extent that I have New Year’s Resolutions, this is mine.
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