* How to Become a Better Software Developer: A Handbook on Personal Performance

** Mindset
*** 10k hours => 1 year-ish
*** Passion
*** Performance distribution
.

*** 8 characteristics
.

** Measure
*** No single way to measure performance (points?)
*** subjective and relative
*** The best way to assess a developer’s performance is to measure their growth over time
*** “If your continuously evaluating your progress and making changes, then your performance will improve.”
*** Runner example
*** The process:
1. Define a way to measure your performance
2. Measure your performance
3. Set a goal
4. Continue to measure and compare performance over time
5. Identify and test new strategies for improving performance
6. Once you’ve reached your goal, repeat
*** Personal time tracking
**** A lot of opinions
**** Time for mesaure performance is not always right
**** Pick one KPI (points?, time?, user stories acepted?, pomodoros?) and measure it => is personal
** Mastering fundamentals

I can build a pendulum in my garage. But, that doesn’t mean that I understand the physics.



1. Engineering fundamentals
  * Algorithms
  * Abstraction
  * Isolation
  * Databases
2. Language/framework fundamentals

*** complexity growth
e.g. Machine Learning


**
** Exercises for Improvement
*** fundamentals vs practice-learn
Fundamentals are–well–fundamental.

But, knowing the underlying components of programming != being a good engineer.

“I think we are in an industry of continuous learning and if you are not learning then you’re not going to be performant,”

“I think if they can genuinely say they learnt something (not superficially) then they should be happy about it.”

“Learn, learn, learn. Read books, try new things, fail and try again.
Stay abreast of the latest technology, watch conference videos (they are free).
I can’t stress enough how things change so fast in our industry if you are not learning you’ll be left behind.”

said Etienne Tremblay.



*** Focused thinking
we concentrate on a particular problem or question and actively try to come to a solution
*** Diffuse thinking
we let the idea incubate in sort of a latent or passive thinking mode–we’re not actively concentrating on it,
but it remains somewhere in the back of our minds and we continue to look for solutions or patterns
*** Side projects
1. Teaches you to add value (not just write code)
2. Pushes you to take action
3. Improves focus
4. Rewards perseverance
5. Makes you more empathetic
*** Read other people’s code
** Solidifying Knowledge
*** Use interleaving to learn new concepts
  * Dont study a topic for too long
  * Mix topics
  * Start again from other perspective or order
*** Teach what you’ve learned to others
.


** Teamwork
“We don’t want heroes on the team”, wrote Hundhausen,
“unless those heroes are sharing their knowledge, pairing up, being respectful to others, and not command- and-controlling the work.”

*** Successfull team (MIT 2012)
1. Equal contribution from every member of the team
2. The team shares a lot of energy
3. Team members communicate directly with each other
4. The team conducts back-channel conversations
5. The members explore the outside world and report their findings back to the team

*** Understanding your strengths (and weaknesses)
Understand and communicate your strengths
Understand and communicate your weaknesses
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of others on your team