82 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
82 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
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FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONGINT
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(With apologies to the late Robert Heinlein)
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* Work smarter, not harder. Sometimes the answer you're looking for is
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simpler than what you're doing right now. Nothing beats falling back to
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fundamentals.
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* If you're going to write clever code, document it well. You may have to
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look at it again a year from now.
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* There is in old saying to the effect that, after you spend hours banging
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your head against a bug, someone completely foreign to the situation will
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walk into your office and immediately spot the flaw. It's true, and
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something you should use often. If necessary, lure them in with food.
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* Know yourself, and your limitations. Extend the frontiers of your
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capabilities early and often. Techniques from one discipline may well
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apply to another, so generalise. When nobody's looking, assign yourself
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tasks in things you've never tried before and then try to do them. Don't
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be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes should be framed and hanging on the
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wall.
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* Read.
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* An ounce of analysis is worth a pound of debugging.
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* You can only make your code so fast and so small. After that, you're
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spending more time on it than it's worth. If you add 25% more time to
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squeeze out 5% more performance, you're wasting your time and money. Move
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on to something else.
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* At some points, depth of experience is more important than breadth. Even
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though you may be second-best at everything, sometimes you need the help
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of the "first-best" at some particular thing. Find that person and ask
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questions.
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* Be kind to the technically impaired. Every nonprogrammer on the planet
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can do five or six things you can't, and do them better than you'll ever
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be able to. Trade talents, not contempt.
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* Regarding trying to revamp existing products when you're the new person
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on the block: Never become involved in a debate that was going on when you
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entered the room. You don't know who's on what side, or what's already
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been said. Worse, you might end up allied with somebody you don't like.
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* Never believe your own PR. Nobody could be THAT good.
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* Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.
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* Beware of being an absolute purist: purely OOP, purely modular, purely
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C, purely Pascal, purely BASIC, purely ASM. Only academics and the
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immature are absolute purists: The experienced remember that hybrids are
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generally stronger than purebreds, and terrier/collie mixes are usually
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less fussy than teacup poodles.
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* Of course you're a genius. This is a secret best kept to yourself.
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* Never confuse intellect with wisdom. Intellect is knowing what or how.
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Wisdom is knowing when and why.
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* Admit when you're wrong. Demand the same from others - including upper
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management.
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* Never let nontechnical management tell you what is and what is not
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technically best. Never tell them what is and is not good management. Grit
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your teeth if necessary.
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* Don't feel that anything's wrong when you find yourself wandering the
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hallways muttering to yourself. Most people don't do enough of it.
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* Don't be intimidated by deadlines. You can always explain why the
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project is late. What you don't want to explain is why three years of
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somebody's important data went into the dumper due to a bug you didn't
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catch because you were working feverishly to beat the deadline.
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* Get a hobby. If necessary, get a life.
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(Copied from PC Techniques Oct/Nov 1990)
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