Is Critical Thinking The Most Important Skill For Software Engineers?
- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: “If someone cannot explain a concept without jargon, I now doubt they truly understand what they are talking about. The true test of properly understanding a given topic is whether you can teach it to someone else. Explaining your thoughts without the use of jargon - or gradually introducing jargon - is a form of teaching, as you need to adopt to someone who has less domain knowledge.” Gergely provides us with 4 tips on how to improve our critical thinking skills.featured in #408
Rescuing A Project In Progress
- Jason Fried tl;dr: “This isn't about calling in reinforcements or adding more resources. This is about stopping, slowing down, eliminating the spread of attention, honing in, and driving to completion.” Jason discusses the importance of establishing "completion discipline" in projects.featured in #408
The Silent Killer Of Your Operating Practice: Fear
- Amanda Schwartz Ramirez tl;dr: Amanda creates example scenarios and ways of mitigating 5 common fears: (1) Fear of failure. (2) Fear of losing control. (3) Fear of conflict. (4) Fear of losing credibility. (5) Fear of missing something.featured in #407
90% Of My Skills Are Now Worth $0
- Kent Beck tl;dr: “In fact, I believe that our skills as software developers are more valuable than ever before. While AI tools like ChatGPT can certainly automate routine tasks and help us be more efficient, they can never replace the human creativity and expertise that is essential to delivering high-quality software products.” Kent expands on this.featured in #407
I Finally Figured Out How To Take Notes!
- Sam Rose tl;dr: “I had some requirements in mind: (1) I want to tag notes, track things like date, who was there, what the key topics were, and be able to search based on tags. (2) Create action items, and be able to ask “what action items have I not yet done?” (3) It has to be super easy. I want to be able to jump into a meeting and have my meeting notes ready to go.”featured in #407
Junior To Senior: An Action Plan For Engineering Career Success
- Jerome Hardaway tl;dr: In this guide you’ll learn: (1) The key technical competencies that managers prioritize for career advancement. (2) The essential communication skills expected from senior developers. (3) How to approach code development with a focus on addressing business requirements.featured in #405
featured in #404
Writing Tips for Improving Your Pull Requests
- Jeff Mueller tl;dr: “I’m going to show you how to purposely write less by using the techniques below.” Tips are: (1) Make it scannable. (2) Speak plainly. (3) Avoid adverbs. (4) Simplify your sentences. (5) Avoid a passive voice. Jeff adds examples to each.featured in #404
Cohesion In Simple Terms - Software Modularity
- Eliran Turgeman tl;dr: “Modularity is a must for good software design. It helps with extensibility, readability, maintainability, and more. It certainly isn’t easy to make your code modular, but what exactly is modularity, and how do we measure it?”featured in #404
I Failed 3 Job Applications, Here's What I Learned
- Alex Ewerlöf tl;dr: “Today after 23 years, I have a relatively high level leadership position but it wasn’t always like this. As an introvert in a world that’s optimized for extroverts I had a long and painful learning curve.” Alex provides us with tips he's learned and mistakes he's made applying for jobs at Datadog, Spotify and Shopify.featured in #402