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