Read my interview with The Code Project
General By Dave Ward. Posted February 9, 2012I took part in The Code Project’s A Coder Interview series recently, and the result was published there yesterday. Terrence happened to send the questions at a rare moment when I wasn’t running in five directions at once, which led to me accidentally writing quite a bit.
Part of it touches on something important to me that I plan to write more about eventually:
What advice would you offer to an up-and-coming programmer?
Write about programming. Start a blog, answer questions on The Code Project or Stack Overflow, or whatever else suits you, but find some way to write about programming.
I can’t count how many times I began writing about something I thought I knew thoroughly, only to find that I had to fill in several important gaps in my knowledge to write about it competently. Just as important, you have to learn topics more comprehensively to distill and teach them in simple terms. The combination of writing about programming and making that writing as clear and simple as you can is a powerful exercise.
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The interview also exposes my shameful stance on tabs vs. spaces, but you’ll have to go there to read that part…
Click here to read the full interview at The Code Project
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What do you think?
I appreciate all of your comments, but please try to stay on topic. If you have a question unrelated to this post, I recommend posting on the ASP.NET forums or Stack Overflow instead.
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“exposes my shameful stance on tabs vs. spaces”
It better be tabs or the puppy gets it!
Good article and couldn’t agree more on the comments – especially related to the quote ‘you don’t know something if you can’t teach it’. Definitely resonates – but unfortunately, in my self-deprecating tendencies, means that I really don’t know much…
But, really, what you said about starting a blog, answering questions, etc. as a means to getting deeper understanding of technologies – especially ones that I work with everyday is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
I think your post reminded me of that and its importance. Now I just gotta get started and do it…
Anyway – good read!
Thanks, Rich.
Re: Starting a blog, I think it’s too easy to let perfect become the enemy of good when it comes to blogging. The key is to just get started, put something out there, and iterate from there. They say even the worst thing you actually get published is still better than the best thing you never finish.
Is there a Mrs. Encosia?
Before you get the wrong idea… I’m just curious because I cannot fathom doing all the things you mention doing in that interview – though I’d like to.
With a Mr. + 3 kids I find it challenging to get uninterrupted time to do any one of those things – let alone doing them well. Your world seems very proactive where mine is extremely reactive.
Anything you can share regarding the personal challenges you face in getting all that done would be greatly appreciated.
I’m fortunate to have an understanding Ms. who doesn’t complain when I stay up till 4am coding and writing. She even helps proofread much of my writing (and insists that JSON should stand for JavaScript Or Not).
For me, the key to being productive is focusing on one thing at a time, limiting the distractions that I can control (e.g. Twitter, Hacker News, IMs, etc) when I’m feeling productive, and then jumping in head-first.
On limiting distractions, I’ve found that forcing myself to use an iPad when I’m browsing time waster sites like Hacker News helps a lot. That way I form habits and routines with different devices (e.g. writing on my laptop and coding on my development machine) and it’s easier to be conscious of when I’m spending my time poorly (which I still do, but in moderation and I’m more in control of it).
I don’t believe it is right to recommend to an inexperienced developer to answer questions on StackOverflow.
On the contrary… “Inexperienced” doesn’t automatically mean “wrong” any more than “experienced” automatically means “right.” If you genuinely feel you have an answer that will help someone you should post it.
Besides, people that provide incorrect/incomplete/inefficient solutions on StackOverflow are quickly, and typically rudely, put in check. Unless the answerer is extremely thin-skinned, that can be a valuable learning experience as well.