N Ways to be a Better Developer

PHPNW13 keynote session, co-presented with Ivo Jansch. A series of tips for the professional development and general improvement of software developers

Transcript

1. Lorna Mitchell Ivo Jansch 0x0F
2. Participate In Communities
3. Ask Questions But Learn To Fish
4. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Chinese Proverb
5. Keep Reading
6. #linktuesday http://phpdeveloper.org http://phparch.com http://sitepoint.com http://stackoverflow.com
7. Learn To Google
8. Would I be the only one? Broad Search Generalize the Problem Minimize Scenario Yes No Found Narrow Search Found Post Get help A Problem Solved
9. Take It One Step At A Time
10. Pick a new technology Explore Get Comfortable Master
11. The Dunning-Kruger Effect
12. What there is to know What you think you could know What you think you know What you know “Seniors” Overestimation Unawareness ‘I know everything’
13. What there is to know What you think you could know What you think you know What you know Actual Seniors Modesty Awareness ‘I know what I don’t know’
14. Keep Your Hands Dirty
15. Learn To Speak Manager
16. Planning Revenue Mindshare Stock Win-Win Paradigm Spin-off Stake- holder Mission Eyeballs Profit Monetize CxO KPIs Post Mortem BINGO CHART
18. Reflect
19. Less = More
20. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
21. Conference Speaker Organizer Attendee Event Person Entity better ok bad
22. Learn Other Languages
23. <?php System.out.print(‘Hello’); ?>
24. Passion
25. Be Healthy
26. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
27. Have A Role Model, Be A Role Model
28. Lorna Mitchell http://www.lornajane.net @lornajane Ivo Jansch http://www.egeniq.com @ijansch Please rate this talk: http://joind.in/9291 Get the book: http://nwaysbook.com The full credits for the pictures in this presentation can be found in the slide deck online.
29. Resources The following URLS point to relevant information. If you liked the presentation, you are going to want to have a look at the following sites: • Sleep Well - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/23/coders_insomnia_mental_hygiene/ On the Be Healthy slide, we talked about how good health improves your development skills. This is an interesting article about recommended sleep hygiene for programmers.. • How To Ask Questions The Smart Way - http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html This article by Eric Raymond goes with the item about asking questions. • The Passionate Programmer - http://pragprog.com/titles/cfcar2/the-passionate-programmer In the ‘Passion’ item, we mentioned a book by the pragmatic programmers. This is the URL for it.
30. Credits The following pictures were used in this presentation. All images are licensed with a creative common license. • ‘#27’ by Dwayne Madden - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dj-dwayne/4553167357/ • ‘This Way’ by Steve Snodgrass - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensnodgrass/4906011803/ • ‘I don’t want to be your ...’ by Josh Pesavento - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pezz/3785769013/ • ‘Matt Dillon kicks off ...’ by Yodel Anecdotal - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yodelanecdotal/499434961/ • ‘Still Human’ by Quinn Dombrowski - http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3821448668/ • ‘Good Friends’ by Juliana Coutinho - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngmmemuda/4166182931/ • ‘TAM London Audience’ by Matt Brown - http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmatt/3977320759/ • ‘Crowd in DPC’ by Juozas Kaziukenas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/juokaz/4702578495/ • ‘The Bridge’ by Ian Carroll - http://www.flickr.com/photos/iancarroll/3050791327/ • ‘Bingo Night’ by Robert Banh - http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertbanh/3319821124/ • Untitled by Kristina Sohappy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristina-sohappy/4242102266/ • ‘ZendCon Tutorial Day’ by Andries Seutens - http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriesss/4027902414/ • ‘Google Logo in Building43’ by Robert Scoble - http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4249731778/ • ‘Tiffus teaching Hoonan how to fish by Brett Kelly - http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkedmn/758241963/ • ‘Programming related books at home, RHS’ by Michael Fogus - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fogus/2629211069/ • ‘Darts of Pleasure’ by Melissa Gray - http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissagray/4002863212/ • ‘One step at a time’ by Fernando de Sousa - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/150271931/ • ‘War and Peace Show’ by Growl Roar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/growlroar/4821487849/ • ‘Less is more? More than what?’ by Theilr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/theilr/2200873034/ • ‘Spaghetti’ by Cyclonebill - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclonebill/2223412838/ • ‘Ian Barber’ by Stuart Herbert - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartherbert/6231988180
31. Credits The following pictures were used in this presentation. All images are licensed with a creative common license. • Untitled by Eduard Orbitron - http://www.flickr.com/photos/eduardorbitron/5187761681/ • ‘Riverside and I-35’ by Dustin Coates - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustinc/577521134/ • ‘Drawer Organizers’ by Rubbermaid Products - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubbermaid/4545308035/ • ‘Complicated Sign’ by Redvers - http://www.flickr.com/photos/redvers/1249510693/ • ‘Library Refresh’ by Mike McCune - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccun934/5000045252/ • ‘The requisite startup foosball table’ by Quami77 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yakshaving/3795071232/ • ‘Haystack’ by Fod Tzellos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fod/237453417/ • ‘Red Lion Denver Southeast Fitness Center’ by Red Lion - http://www.flickr.com/photos/43536733@N03/4009413538/ • ‘Fire’ by Matthew Venn - http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewvenn/366986755/ • ‘Main conference room’ by Felix de Vliegher - http://www.flickr.com/photos/felixdv/2579551939/ • ‘Matthew Weier-O’Phinney’ by Juozas Kaziukenas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/juokaz/4702577233/ • ‘Hylomentis Lemur’ by Brian Gratwicke - http://www.flickr.com/photos/briangratwicke/4745986234 We have used other materials, such as the Dilbert and XKCD comics and the Yoda picture from Star Wars, under the assumptions that embedding them is fair use; they are copyrighted by their respective owners. Sources: • http://www.dilbert.com • http://www.xkcd.org