5 non-technical errors that programmers make

There are two sets of skills that a good programmer needs to cultivate: technical and non-technical. Unfortunately, some programmers focus only on the technical part. When this happens, they have bad habits that cause 5 non-technical errors.

Indiscipline

“Discipline is the bridge between task and solution.” Jim Rohn.
I have always believed that discipline is important not only in software development, but also in any other area of ​​life. Indeed, it is difficult to find a person at the same time creative and disciplined.
Steve Pavlina identifies 5 principles of self-discipline: humility, willpower, perseverance, diligence, perseverance. Note Trans .: A WHIP - acceptance, willpower, hardwork, industry, persistence.
My approach is as follows:

• availability of TODO-list for every day;
• at the same time doing only one thing;
• to do well;
• do not throw something until it is completed;
• better late than bad, better bad than never.

Big ego

My experience tells me that conceit and a programmer go hand in hand. The main problem of this is that the big ego hinders the realization. Here are the indicators that your ego is too big:

• You consider yourself the best programmer;
• You interrupt the interlocutor;
• asking to evaluate your code, you do not accept criticism, but want to hear how good it is.

There are many publications on the Internet about programmers and their ego. I recommend 2 of them, from Mike Bernath, “Programming without ego - development without aggression” and a discussion on stackoverflow.com.

Incommunicability

“If I'm going to talk for 10 minutes, I need to get ready for a week; if 15 minutes - 3 days; if half an hour - two days; if it's an hour, I'm ready right now. ”- Woodrow Wilson .
In life, communication is the main activity of a person. Being communicative is hard, but significant in our profession, because we constantly exchange views on design, code, write reviews, document, convince someone else that our development is better, write code ...
Sociable people are those whose explanation:

• Clearly; they talk about what is needed and what should be understood;
• Simply; they speak in accessible language;
• Briefly; nothing can be added and nothing removed in their speech.

I have two tips to become more sociable:

• If you consider yourself a bad speaker, prepare the message until it becomes focused, simple and concise.
• If you enter into a discussion, first listen, then think, and then speak

There are some more tips that are useful to know when holding meetings. They are published in the article "7
best decision making practices in the development team ”
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Forgot about the customer

“If we don’t care about the customer ... someone will take care of us.”
You work only for your customer. It is very easy to forget about it. I was in teams where more attention was paid to technologies and platforms, and not to customer needs. We could spend a month creating a framework that gave him nothing, and once we tried to use it, but found that it does not solve our problems.

Did not set the correct priorities in the work

Developers who are constantly looking for gold grains, are exploring new or more interesting technologies, or are only doing what they find more interesting, creating barriers to the project. I'm not saying that it is not normal to switch to other things from time to time, we all need to get distracted sometimes, but if you do it too often, you should reconsider your work priorities.
I recommend you to read "5 tips for creating a good code every day . "

This article is translated by me from the original at makinggoodsoftware.com. I hope you will like it.

Thanks to Yandex and Farlex free dictionaries !