Letters to a New Developer: What I Wish I Had Known When Starting My Development Career

Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	For new developers
	For anyone considering software development
	For mentors
	Format
	Thank you
Chapter 1: Your First Month
	There are no adults in the room
	Onboarding
	Overindex
	Work through the trepidation
	How to excel at your job
	Learn your team
	How to read code
	Learn about personal finance
	Take care of your body
	In conclusion
Chapter 2: Questions
	Ask smart prepared questions
	How to ask a question on the Internet
	Don’t be afraid to ask questions
	Technical decisions in the face of uncertainty
	Getting answers from busy people
	Ask the hard questions
	You know more than you think
		How to ask “why”
		How to document “why”
		Start asking “why”
	Trade-offs
	Improving Stack Overflow
	How to say “I don’t know”
	In conclusion
Chapter 3: Writing
	Read your work aloud
	Write that down!
	Tips for using email well
	Real-time messaging
	Write a technical ebook
	On developer documentation
	Always be journaling
		Organization
		Schedule
		Reviews
		Personal results
		Closing thoughts
	You should blog
	Motivation
	In conclusion
Chapter 4: Tools to Learn
	Leverage
	The command line
	jq, awk, and sed
		awk
		sed
		jq
	Version control
	Text editors
	IDEs
	The standard library
	Automated testing
	Network engineering
	SQL
	Debuggers
	Benchmarking
	Search engines
	The keyboard
	In conclusion
Chapter 5: Practices
	Don’t just write code—solve problems
	Look around corners
	Read code
	Estimate your work
	Debug systems
	Assume positive intent
		What about when…?
		The ROI of trust
	Express gratitude
	Cultivate the skill of undivided attention
		Leading vs. lagging indicators
		In conclusion
	Build empathy
	Don’t complain about the code
	Avoid jargon
	Realize time is money
	Say no
	Play a lot more
	Build on your own
	Consistency is key
	In conclusion
Chapter 6: Understanding the Business
	Software is about people, not code
	Outcomes over output
	Business process crystallization
	Businesses spend money to make money
	Understand the business model
	No company is a monolith
	Where do developers fit in?
	Hammers
	Starting a company
	Learn from your customers
	In conclusion
Chapter 7: Learning
	Never stop learning
	Build expert intuition
		A regular world
		Many opportunities to learn
		Frequent feedback
		It takes time
	Teach and learn
	What is your woodlot?
	Avoid being an expert beginner
	Pattern match to be a just-in-time learner
	Help, I can’t learn something because it is boring!
	Your team will teach you
	Use an RSS reader
	Listen to podcasts
	Subscribe to link newsletters
	Read great books about software development
	Listen actively
	Learn two languages
	In conclusion
Chapter 8: Mistakes
	Get used to failure
	Making mistakes is okay
	Mistakes are forgiven, hiding them is not
	Don’t make the same mistake twice
	Don’t be afraid to “fail”
	That time I dropped a production table
	You’re going to put some plates in toasters
	What do I do when I see someone making a mistake?
	The despair of ineptitude
	Admit your weaknesses
	In conclusion
Chapter 9: Your Career
	Favor learning over earning
	You will never be in a better position to leave a bad job than before you start
	Pick a flaw, any flaw
	Preparing for a recruiting event
		Resume
		The introduction
		The conversation
		Appearance
	The surprising number of programmers who can’t program
	Start at a small consulting company
	Potential vs. delivery
	Maintain work-life balance
	Take this advice, or leave it
	Manage your career
		Knowledge
		Communication
		Progress
	Know your runway
	How to manage one on ones
	Write a brag document
	Be adaptable and authentic
	Are you ready to work remotely?
	How to go through a layoff
	Use LinkedIn
	Contracting
	Engineering management
	Someday, you won\'t want to code for a living
	In conclusion
Chapter 10: Community
	Meetups
	Conversational hooks
	Online tech communities
	You get what you give
	Build your work community
	Three mantras to live by
		Surround yourself every-damn-day with people who are smarter than you
		Build community and give without expecting anything in return
		Listen to your gut, every day without exception
	Build a personal board of advisors
	In conclusion
Index