The idea that changed the way I program - Dev Finds Friday

This was originally published in my free weekly newsletter, Dev Finds Friday. It's like having that cool friend who sends you all the best links on the internet (but better).

Onto the the links!

I was browsing Twitter earlier this week when I came across a thread on ideas that changed your life.

It's well worth a read in and of itself, but it got me thinking about what ideas changed the way I program.

I tweeted out my first thoughts on what those ideas might be, and as I think about it now perhaps the biggest change was learning how to use JavaScript's array methods.

I read through a tutorial on functional programming in JavaScript, and overnight it transformed my code. I don't remember the last time I wrote a for-loop in my day job.

I've read a lot of articles, watched tons of courses, and listened to too many podcasts, but only a small percentage of that content has truly shaped the way I program. It's fun to look back and reflect on the ones that did.
What ideas have influenced you?

The Links

Rules of thumb for a 1x developer: Everyone is obsessed with the idea of a 10x developer., but what do you do when you're a 1x dev?

• "Rule 3: Focus learning time on things that compound"
• "Rule 18: Estimates serve more for creating pressure than for project planning"
• "Rule 20: When somebody says Agile, push for Kanban, not Scrum"

Hacker News discussion.

Advice for Writing a TechnicalResume: Great article from Sarah Drasner on exactly what it says.

"Each time you list a work example, answer this: what did you accomplish? This is a good way to provide valuable information without unnecessary fluff."

Regular Expressions for Regular Folk: A visual tour de force through regular expressions.

SQL Police Department: Learn SQL while solving crimes. The Hacker News discussion has a few other links to similar SQL tutorials, as well, like SQL Murder Mystery.

Software Folklore A collection of weird bug stories: We've all experienced our share of tough bugs. This is a collection of doozies like a bug that only showed up depending on the phase of the moon.

The Hacker News discussion has more bug stories.

Analyzing Analytics (Featuring: The FBI): In which our young adventurer discovers a site secretly run by the FBI.

The Eng Hiring Bar: What the hell is it?: A question for the ages. Long answer made short: it depends, but it's pretty high.

Corresponding Hacker News discussion.

That's all I've got.

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Stay healthy and thanks for reading!