HOW TO BE A GREAT DEVELOPER ED FINKLER [email protected] @funkatron http://funkatron.com 

TECH SKILLS ARE OVERRATED 

•PRACTICE EMPATHY •PRACTICE HUMILITY •ALWAYS BE LEARNING •AVOID TRIBALISM •BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY 

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Empathy is the ability to understand how a person feels, and why they may feel that way. •Empathy is your most important skill. 

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Never assume you know why a decision was made unless you were in the room when it was made. •Always keep two groups in mind: the users and the rest of your team. They are the ones affected by the decisions you make. 

PRACTICE HUMILITY •Be open to the likelihood that you are wrong about a great many things. •The less you fear being wrong, the more confident you can be. •Understand what you do well, and what you don’t. 

ALWAYS BE LEARNING •Be liberal in learning about new technologies and approaches. Be conservative in using them. •Any technology can be the right choice depending on the needs of the project and strengths of the team. 

AVOID TRIBALISM •Refuse to participate in tribalism. •Your choices of technology and technique matter, but only so far as they serve what you make with them. •View absolute statements with extreme skepticism. 

AVOID TRIBALISM •Dismissing a technology without a sound, reasonable argument is lazy and prone to error. •Be extremely careful about participating in X vs Y arguments. 

AVOID TRIBALISM •Reserve your loyalty for people. Not brands. Not companies. Not technologies. 

BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY •Make people’s lives better with your skills. •Make the community around you better. You don’t need to go to some Magic City of Tech Genius to do important work. 

BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY •Share what you learn with the people around you. Ask them to share what they have learned with you. 

Q+A ED FINKLER [email protected] @funkatron http://funkatron.com https://joind.in/10624 http://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/c64.shtml