10+1 things they never teach in college about programming.

I still remember how naive I was just after I finished my studies. I was convinced that I was ready to join any software company and start shining as a top class developer. Obviously, no long after I started working, I realized how many things I didn’t know.
As I have been acquiring experience, I have been learning things the hard way, stuff which I was never taught, and which its understanding, is basic to become a good developer. This is my list of the 10 things I wish I had been taught.

1.- We’re always wrong.

Developers, among other non technical defects, have quite big egos, that´s why is very hard for us to recognize that we were wrong about something. I’ve seen many endless design discussions where developers will go on and on with their own ideas… well, guess what.. We are all wrong, the only difference between our positions is the degree of wrongness.
Is very important to understand and embrace this fact, only once that we do so we will be open to listen to others and use their own ideas to build a better solution.

2.- If something can break, it will break.

Aka “hope driven development“, if you are not sure about something, if you find yourself using the word “should”, then you are in trouble.
There is only one solution for this, do whatever is necessary to make sure that it doesn’t break, this could mean that you will have to write a test, debug, clarify the requirements…

3.- All code is crap.

After 10 years complaining about all the code that surrounds me, I have come to a brilliant conclusion, all code (including mine), is crap. Of course there are many degrees of crappy code, but even the best code I’ve ever seen is not easy to read.
This doesn’t mean that is not worthy trying to make your code better, all the opposite, there’s a huge difference between the best kind of code and the worst kind of code.

4.- There is always a bug.

ALWAYS! Is just a matter of how hard you look for it.

5.- The most important thing is the client.

Among many things the client doesn’t care are: the technologies you use in the project, how many more things that required the application does… or in general, if you use good practices.
And since I can imagine how much hate comments I will get if I only leave the previous paragraph, let me clarify what I want to say… We should never forget the client perspective, sometimes developers use technologies or insist in over engineering just for the sake of using best practices, but remember, if it doesn’t add any value for the client, drop it.

6.- Design on paper doesn’t work.

I used to believe that I could put my whole design in a paper upfront, and then just fill in the gaps, but it simply doesn’t work.
Software development is complex, is hard to see all the entities and their relationships until you don’t get the hands dirty. So keep planning and designing upfront, it is very helpful, just don’t try too hard, and don’t take the diagrams as contracts.

7.- Less is more.

Or as you probably know it better: “Keep it simple, stupid!” (KISS). So if is not necessary drop it, because remember: “If something can break, will break”.

8.- Coding is only 20% of what we do.

Be ready to spent 80% of your time thinking, debugging, testing, in meetings, conversations… And all of the other activities are very important, so you have to develop a wide range of skills, not only technical, to become a good software developer.

9.- The customer doesn’t know what he/she wants NEVER!.

Customers have a necessity, or an idea, but they don’t know the details… Software development is all about discovering the details and removing all the uncertainty and converting them into an application.

10.- Someone has done it before.

So don’t reinvent the wheel, use Google, or better yet, ask your colleagues, many times they may have done already the same or something very similar.

Bonus: Hey! Our job is cool!

On the bright side, programming is still cool!