The Habits of Fast Developers

Some developers just seem to fly when things get hectic — when bugs pop up, deadlines tighten, or priorities shift overnight. What’s their secret sauce? In this talk, I’ll share the habits, mindsets, and workflows that help you move fast without cutting corners or sacrificing quality. You’ll learn how to shorten your debug loop, master your IDE, terminal tricks, and build a mental map of your team’s work to avoid reinventing the wheel. We’ll explore why sometimes slowing down to really understand a problem can actually speed you up, and how small automations and smart documentation can multiply your impact. Whether you’re at a scrappy startup or a big company, junior or senior, this session is for anyone who wants to get sharper, stay calm under pressure, and deliver better, faster.

Transcript

1. The Habits of Fast Developers Sam Jarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 • @samjarman
2. About Me 👨💻 • Engineering Manager at Cochlear • Current on AWS/Backend Node • Thoughts are my own • Em-dashes are my own
3. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Today • Why • Mindset and Approach • Mastering Your Tools • Ef f icient Work f low Practices • Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing • Continuous Improvement • Some Words on AI – Does this all still matter?
4. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Disclaimer I’m not perfect at this stuff. I don’t claim to be the fastest developer in the room. What I’ve done is collect a set of habits, tools, and approaches that have made a real difference for me and my teams. Some you may already use, some might be new. The point is to keep adding to your own toolkit, and hopefully you’ll leave today with a few you can put into practice right away.
5. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 But Sam, AI? A year or two ago, this talk was about moving faster yourself. Today, I think the same habits matter even more, because they also determine how well you use AI. If you came here wanting a bag of AI prompts, that is not this talk. This is the layer underneath that. The habits that make you faster on your own, and make AI output more useful when you bring it in.
6. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Why??? • You get more done in the same amount of time • Having the skills to do so when the time calls for it - eg production issues, POCs • Hopefully you get rewarded - bonuses, raises, faster growth etc • It builds a reputation: you get things done • Increase the density of your experience https://www.samjarman.co.nz/blog/on-experience
7. Abraham Lincoln, but possibly others “And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
8. Sam Jarman “It's not the years in your experience that count. It's the experience in your years.”
9. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 What This Talk is Not About 👎 • Rushing: skipping steps, lowering the bar, compromising, shipping sh*t • Trying to speed run your way to burn out • Trying to make your life miserable and your f ingers tired
10. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 It’s about habits. Good and Bad. They both stack. Every little positive thing you do helps, every little thing you don’t do hurts
11. Mindset and Approach
12. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Develop a Sense of Urgency 🏃 • You’ve got to want to go fast. Develop a bias towards action. • This develops over time, it’s not instant – and takes practice • It will also come and go – good days and bad
13. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Understand the Big Picture of the Business 📊 • What is this business? How does it make money? How does this current task help? Why are we doing it? • This can help with smaller decisions and trade offs across many units of work – and ask good questions! • Look to challenge things that could cost you time - e.g. moving a button
14. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Understand the Big Picture of the Code 🌄 • Step back and learn the big picture of your task • Not just React - but more declarative languages • Not just AWS Kinesis - but more events over time, producers, consumers, pipes etc
15. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Slow Down To Speed Up 🐌 • Sometimes, the fastest way forward is to slow down and learn something properly • Don’t just hack away at tasks to get them done – or keep prompting 😉 • Take the time to fully understand what you’re doing, and you’ll move faster in the long run
16. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Two Way Doors 🚪 • It’s software • You can change your mind if you’re wrong • So don’t panic about getting it right the f irst time • Give yourself options to reverse things
17. Mastering Your Tools
18. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Master Your Language 🗣 • Build your muscle memory for typing out code • Practice regularly – beyond the backlog tasks • Write code for practice – seriously.
19. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Learn your IDE 🛠 • Your IDE is a powerful tool • Lean into it, learn how to use it and learn how to use it well • Do you know multi-cursor editing? Do you how to restart it? Install extensions? Check logs? Use the debugger? Get to documentation fast? Know when things aren’t working right?
20. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Use IDE Extensions 🧩 • Find and install extensions that can help you • Practice using them so you naturally reach for them when you need them • Give and ask for recommendations • Set them up for yourself and others in your codebases
21. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Be an Expert In All Your Tools ⛓ • Not just IDE… but also GitHub, Jira, Slack, etc • Just get good at them • Be on the lookout for more tools that can help you save time • Give and ask for recommendations for tools
22. Ef f icient Work f low Practices
23. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Search Documentation Smartly 🔍 • You should understand how people organises their Documentation • You should be able to jump to areas you want, using Cmd+F. • Slow down to speed up • Open source tools use same docs frameworks - recognise that and use them • Knowing how to get to the documentation for something from your IDE • Bookmarks, knowing the terms to google, etc • Shorten: Needing the docs → Getting to the docs → Finding the docs you need.
24. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Shorten Your Debug Loop 🔄 • Debug Loop: The time between writing code and knowing if it works • Eg: • Using the simulator over device • Using a unit test over build and run • Build your own tools - a script, demo app, unit test, etc • Eg Hardcode skipping of login or typing in of login details • You want knowledge in seconds not minutes
25. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Bookmark Everything 🏷 • Websites • Code snippets • cURL/Postman requests • If it’s useful, bookmark it • Mentally bookmark it - practice using your bookmarks. • Organise them effectively in your browser.
26. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Scale Yourself 📈 • Great documentation can do the talking for you • Internal packages, sample code bases, CI pipelines etc • If someone asks you about code that is meant to be shared – you’ve failed • What this talk is doing for me right now – saving a 1:1 conversation with all of you
27. Great documentation does the explaining for you so you can focus on the next thing
28. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Automate Repetitive Tasks 🏧 • Obviously • CLI tooling, scripts, make it easy to share scripts • Does your team have an internal CLI? • The ROI is changing on this with AI generated code → hours to minutes • Have an automation hackathon?
29. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Stay Busy 📆 • If you’re blocked – move onto something else • Don’t wait for stand up • Try to have 1-2 backlog tasks on the go at once plus some extra curricular • Your manager will always have something for you
30. Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
31. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Leverage What Already Exists 👀 • You’re rarely the f irst to solve a problem • Look around: teammates, Slack threads, sprint reviews, other repos • Copy ideas/code — but understand them before reusing • Use existing patterns & architecture to stay consistent • Awareness saves time, effort, and future pain • Eg: How do I make one of those shiny card UIs??
32. My Dad. A lot. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”
33. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Read and Leave Clues 🕵 • Code changes over time → leave breadcrumbs • Small actions matter: Comments, READMEs, Code Patterns • Future-you (or teammate) will thank you • “Read the room” in a codebase: Code structures, Architecture https://www.samjarman.co.nz/blog/codebases
34. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Ask for Help at the Right Time 🙋 • Mastering the timing of when to ask for help is an art – a skill you will build over your career. • Don’t spend hours in the weeds – reach out when you’re stuck • BUT – Pushing through a challenge on your own will lead to valuable learning and potentially make you faster in the future • Continue honing your intuition of when to ask vs when to persevere • Respect the time of others – there are no dumb questions but there are lazy questions
35. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Document What You’re Learning ✍ • If you’re struggling to learn something – document it • Writing helps retention and gives a reference for later (Is this what I am doing right now?) • Doesn’t have to be a talk - blog post, tweets, tiktoks, even a private diary. • Sharing and teaching can create a great work culture that helps everyone • Lock in the learning – more on this later
36. Continuous Improvement
37. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Practice Makes Perfect ✅ • It’s cliche – but for a good reason • Side projects, hackathons, working on internals tools can give you more practice • The more you code – the more ef f icient you will become • There’s always more to be done at work – ask your leader for more work • Extra curricular backlog of practice/low priority tasks
38. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Re f lect Often 🤔 • Re f lect regularly on your work. Re f lect, re f lect, re f lect. Lock in that learning. It will accumulate. • Experience = Sensations + Reflection • Ask yourself (or your leader) some questions: • What was different from last time? • What was the same? • In what other situations would this approach work? • In what situations wouldn’t it work?
39. Get a good keyboard, chair, desk Listen to High Tempo Music Block Out Focus Time Code Snippet Managers Get Noise Cancelling Headphones Pair and Mob Programming Read Blogs/Books Terminal & Aliases
40. Some Words on AI
41. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 AI: It’s here 🤖 • The LLphant in the room • Has its issues around power consumption, copyright, creativity, etc • Clearly a step-change in technology and perhaps society
42. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 AI: Stay curious 🧐 • Be curious about AI • Install it in your IDE, and even try other IDEs (VS Code, Cursor) for agentic tasks • Install MCP servers, onboard it to your team • Create custom instructions, prompts, skills
43. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Develop an intuition of when AI will be good – and when not. Then revisit that every few months.
44. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Use AI to accelerate learning, not replace it. Ask it about common knowledge that isn’t yours yet.
45. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 AI Changes the Ceiling Habits change the Floor
46. @samjarman • Code Camp Wellington 2026 Conclusion ❤ • Going faster isn’t about typing faster, it’s about producing faster. • The habits you build today compound for the rest of your career. • These habits work with AI to make you even faster and more thorough than ever before Good luck!