Well-designed software shouldn't need a manual. (But give them one, anyway!) Software should not only perform the task it is made to perform, but be designed to make life easier for everyone who uses it. Not all of us here on earth are computer savvy so we as developers should always strive to know our user's level of expertise and build based on that.

There are more important things in life than computers. All the cool-guy tech lingo and acronyms in the world won't help you communicate with the user who makes the best bread-sticks in the world, or who's genius is in the art of air conditioning installation. Software is useless without a purpose. Strive to understand your software's purpose by understanding the users who use it and what they do with it.

Live to program, don't just program for a living. It's not all about the bottom dollar. If you have fun working on a projects you'll do a better job on that project. If you do a better job on today's projects, you'll have more projects for tomorrow.

We're not all good guys. Believe it or not there are bad people in this world. There may even be bad people using our apps. It is our responsibility to build safe and secure code that keeps the bad people out, no matter how secure the environment.

Practice Zen and the art of software maintenance. Design it right the first time and be just as meticulous when updating code for bug fixes or additional features. Most bug fixes spawn new bugs. Test every change you make, big or small. Think out of the box when testing and coding to consider every possible effect of your code change. After you've tested it, retest it. After you've retested it, ask a friend to test it. The hands of the careless coder are the breeding grounds for "spaghetti code".    Back