Thread by @jamesmh_dev

Dev Tip 🔥: Should you learn that next hot technology? Everyone's talking about it!

Will it really **transform** the way you make software and solve customer problems?

Sad news: Nope. Not _that_ much.

(Keeping reading for 30+ things that do! 👇)

We are obsessed with learning about more tools and languages!

If your architecture is bad, you're solving the wrong problems, your client doesn't understand when you try to explain things... then shiny tools don't help.

And these are fundamental to your business' success!

Imagine, someone who's mediocre at archery. Should they get a new expensive bow? Will it make them shoot better? Sure. A little bit.

Will it make them a professional? Nope.

OK... then, what will?

✔Learning and mastering the fundamentals of archery
✔Learning how the pros. do it and applying those techniques
✔Practice a lot
✔Figure out what techniques you use that are actually hindering from getting to the "next level"

Sure, modern tooling can make things easier. But, the best use of your time is to master programming fundamentals and techniques.

These are concepts and techniques that can be used in any programming language, regardless of tooling.

Examples:

✔ SOLID
✔ Design patterns and what problems they solve
✔ Knowing how to refactoring
✔ Knowing how to debug
✔ Understanding inheritance and the benefits + pitfalls of it
✔ Encapsulation
✔ Message passing techniques
✔ Data structures (when/how to use)

✔ Understanding functional programming techniques
✔ Architecture and systems design
✔ How to organize your code
✔ How to estimate well
✔ How to plan a software project well
✔ How to communicate well with co-workers
✔ How to communicate well with non-programmers

✔ How to recover a failing project
✔ How to deploy software
✔ How to use and configure automated builds
✔ How to make proper unit tests
✔ How to make proper integration tests
✔ Asynchronous code
✔ Discovering how business processes actually work for your business

✔ Placing boundaries around code modules
✔ Relational database design
✔ Graph database design
✔ Document database design
✔ When to use relational vs. graph vs. document?
✔ How to modularize monoliths?
✔ How to know what product features are necessary

✔ How to know what product features are unnecessary
✔ Understanding the industry your business solves for
✔ How to write documentation well
✔ How to present well

✔ How to hire other developers
✔ How to teach other developers
✔ How to "level-up" an entire team
✔ How to decipher whether a "new" concept in the industry is actually an old one with a different name
✔ Etc.

Any more you can think of? Leave a comment!