How To Be A Good Developer?

Hello! It’s cough been a while… 4 years to be exact.

I’ve met a lot of incredible people over the last four years and have learnt from them all, everyone I spoke to and worked with brought a unique twist to what a “good developer” is so thought it’d be interesting to discuss this.

What Is A Good Developer To You?

Firstly, let’s kick off with what it actually means to be a good developer. Everyone has their own perception of what this means and is typically influenced by the people you meet and the work that you do. Is a good developer someone who knows the ins and outs of the system that you’re working on? Someone who is always happy to support and help? Or possibly someone you’ve never even met before? – Perhaps someone you watch on YouTube or read articles from? (hint hint).

I can’t say what it means for you, but I can say what it means to me and for a tldr; I think… all of the above.

A good developer is someone who knows the ins and outs which enables them to help and support, they’re responsible and are capable. They may master one disciple or multiple, they could also be a master of non. Is that a bad thing? I think not.

People are too quick to jump on the band wagon of “you need to master x,y,z”.. but that takes time, and considering everything is evolving and changing constantly – can you really master anything? Or can you get very good for a short amount of time?

What Is A Bad Developer?

Now this is a tricky question, because I appreciate that everyone is good at something, and personally I think this comes down to personality and thought process.

Why do I think so? I’ll give you a scenario – I worked with person x in company z, this person was a good programmer but a terrible developer. They would cut corners, not follow process and seemingly argue to attempt to prove a point (even when the point did not stand).

All of this took a toll on the health of the team, people became frustrated and the negativity that this person brang started to trickle into members of the team who started saying “I don’t want to join the meeting if person x was invited”.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a firm believer of discussions – as this leads to better outcomes and results. What I do not believe in is trying to be the smartest in the room, like I said earlier, you’re good at something but others are better in other things. If you have a point, put it forward for discussion and listen, afterwards reflect, is the way that you proposed truly better? if so, prove why.

This was a quick and short article, but I wanted to open up the floor for discussion. What do you think?

No gin this time, it’s 2pm… I guess it 6pm somewhere! Ha!

Rus.