Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

Modern technology and related jobs have allowed us to get out of our office.  This change in a work venue can be full of challenges.  On the other hand, remote work benefits can often overwhelm the negatives.  I think that your view of this situation is a matter of your goals and personality.  Nevertheless, this is a season of positives, and we will embrace those opportunities. Own Your Schedule The more complex your life, the more your schedule is an essential part of your day.  We are all given only twenty-four hours a day, so those that manage that time better are likely to enjoy life.  No matter what our job is, the commute time required is part of our schedule, we do not control.  This daily time can add up quickly and steal away the things we can accomplish. Giving You Back Time We spend a lot of time preparing for and traveling to work.  That is often "dead" time spent driving with limited productive options.  We might be able to take public transport and be productive as we travel.  However, there are still things we do to prepare that spend time we would not if we stayed home. As an example, have you ever worked on a Saturday or day off?  If you did that work from home, then I bet you found yourself far more productive.  Multiple factors go into that productivity, but think about how much time you did not spend commuting.  That may be hours that can be better spent. Reduced Costs Of Working Time is our most valuable resource.  Yet, it is not our only valuable resource.  There are monetary remote work benefits in the form of gas, not burned, laundry costs, and even eating out.  You will find that there are many ways to save money as you get used to working away from the office.  You will get those intangible benefits of more control over your time, but the tangible ones add up too. Episode Challenge: When was the last time you assessed (and improved) your remote workspace. Read more about advancing your career.

Some things are universal in the world of work.  Nearly everyone has complained about co-workers at some point.  Even those that work alone have probably complained at some point.  That is just part of the job.  Nevertheless, our teammates and leaders provide us a long list of positives on which we can focus. A Whole Better Than The Sum First and foremost, we can accomplish much more as a team than individually.  This statement is not always true.  There are highly ineffective teams.  However, most of the time, adding additional points of view is a boost to productivity.  If that were not the case, then we would not have industries to help us make the most of teams and teamwork.  There is a cost to building a team as it can complicate things.  That cost is outweighed by the ROI you get when you put those heads together. Blind Spots and Points Of View Everyone has blind spots.  Nevertheless, there is no shame in this.  We are just not omniscient in any area. Therefore, we will miss things.  When we add the input of others, we have an opportunity to reduce those weak areas.  A blind spot for one person may be seen entirely by the next person.  Think about two people standing back-to-back and how the blind spots of one are seen clearly by the other.  We can extend this situation to team members that are dramatically different.  However, I will avoid waxing philosophic on that topic at this point. Avoiding Writer's Block Via Co-Workers We all have times where we fall into a rut or become too focused on a certain point.  These situations can lead to things like writer's block.  A good example is the popular escape game setup.  You have a group of people that are asked to escape via some situation, and when they work together, they can be far more successful.  The mindset of one person can often be primed by input from another.  This benefit has often been considered and even has a name in classic literature.  That is what a muse does for the recipient. Episode Challenge: When did you last thank a co-worker?  Time to spread some affirmation. Read more about advancing your career.

We have been looking at the bright side of things that bother us.  Many of you may be questioning what could be wrong about time off.  Why would an episode on the benefits of time off be needed?  Let's step back and think about that question.  We get into a rhythm with our work.  Even if we do not enjoy it, we typically get used to it.  As better developers, we even enjoy that in most cases.  We also have a pile of work when we return from vacation.  Those factors add up to many of us deciding it is better to trade vacation days for cash.  We are not able to enjoy or benefit from that time away. Refresh And Rejuvenate A real vacation allows us to relax, recharge, and generally rest from our daily grind.  These results do not come from a three-day weekend.  We need to spend more consecutive time in order to get the benefits of time off.  You may argue that you can get more than enough sleep on a long weekend.  However, that is not the rest I am talking about.  Our minds need to spend some time without churning through our latest challenge.  A vacation provides an opportunity for that.  Think of it as physical workouts where you take a day or two off for your body to heal and grow. Work On The Bucket List No one wants to spend life solely working.  No matter what our "why" is, it is not going to be trudging your way through each day with no real accomplishments.  Whether a dream or a reachable goal, we all have some sort of bucket list.  These are places we want to go, things to do, even people to meet.  The point is to do some things that usually work blocks us from doing.  These are the proverbial "smell the roses" activities that make for a full life.  At the end of our days, a full life is the indicator of a life well-lived. A Retirement Trial Run Retirement is something we all think about almost as soon as we start into our careers.  However, a lifetime of building up a work habit can be hard to break.  We need to have a plan for retirement, just like any other significant project.  That brings up the last of our benefits of time off.  We are provided an opportunity to try out life without work.  We may not be able to test out ideas we have for retirement thoroughly, but we can at least get a taste of them. Episode Challenge: When was your last real vacation?  Do you need to schedule one? Read more about advancing your career.

A series that focuses on the positives of pain points could skip the tasks with a noticeable ROI.  Nevertheless, we will dive into the less apparent benefits of certifications and training.  These are not the results.  Instead, they are benefits we get from making the journey. Growing Our Skillset The idea of becoming a better developer often comes back to our overall skillset.  While we get the highly visible benefits of certifications in the form of a certificate, or recognition, there is more to it.  We expand our knowledge and add to our toolset.  These additions assist us in problem-solving and comparing solutions.  These are essential skills for us, as we have discussed in the past.  The more we expand our "comfort zone," the more options we have for tackling a problem.  This flexibility can be the difference between success and failure. Every Challenge Is An Opportunity For Success Experience is something that can not be imitated or replaced.  There is the idea of "been there, done that" that shows up in a broad range of specialties.  Technology is no different.  When we survive (or thrive) after a challenge, we add that to our list of things we have accomplished.  This list becomes the equivalent of things we can do because we did them before.  While no technology problem is going to be exactly like the last one you faced, the similarities can help your confidence and speed in delivery. Technology DNA One thing that is hard to learn, until you have a lot of experience are the traits of technology companies.  There is a mindset almost to the level of groupthink that can settle into an organization.  When you spend the time studying for certifications or are exposed to a lot of training on a vendor, you start to see their way of thinking.  This mindset has strengths and weaknesses, just as any technology does.  Therefore, you can develop a sense of what vendors are best for families of problems.  This knowledge can dramatically reduce your time in selecting a vendor for a specific project. Episode Challenge: When did you last put a certification on your career road map?  How are you progressing on it? Read more about advancing your career.

One of the scariest things many of us face in our jobs is getting up in front of a crowd.  This situation may occur as part of presenting to our team, the management, or at a conference.  There are benefits of presentations that outweigh the related stress and fear.  Therefore, it is time to look at this black storm cloud and find the silver lining. A Focus On The Details Most of us stress the details for a presentation more than many other situations.  Activities that demand detailed knowledge, including interviews and certification tests, force us to learn.  However,  there tends to be more structure to that knowledge in those cases than when we are presenting on an idea.  We will end up with a firm plan and story for our presentation.  However, we do not start with those constraints.  Therefore, we are pushed to not only learn a topic but also to find the bits that are interesting to our audience.  That is a task that requires more than knowledge.  It requires understanding. Repetition Leads To Mastery The process of crafting a presentation involves a lot of repetition and editing.  These repeated reviews of the content and the source material will solidify the knowledge in our minds.  We can not help learning the things that we repeatedly do.  That is what practice is all about.  Thus, we end up practicing the topic as we work to create an exciting presentation. Found In Translation One of the undervalued benefits of presentations is our need to talk to a more general audience than usual.  It is one thing for us to learn a fact and understand it.  When we attempt to teach that fact to others, it forces us to use a language they understand.  That is a barrier to a lot of communication.  We have words and phrases that we translate in a way that differs from other roles, groups, professions, and even individuals. Episode Challenge: What will you choose as the topic of your next presentation?  When will you perform it? Read more about advancing your career.

There are countless performance tuning benefits.  Well, maybe not countless, but there are a number of them that are readily apparent.  However, the typical outcomes from a performance tuning project are just some of the upside to doing this work.  There are many indirect silver linings of this black cloud.  The process of improving performance can be daunting.  Nevertheless, the ROI makes it all worthwhile. Learn From Challenges One of the best performance tuning benefits outside of a better running application is the process itself.  We learn by being pushed beyond our limits.  When we are asked to expend beyond what we know or have done, it causes growth.  A steady stream of obstacles provides the bricks in the road to being a better developer.  That may seem cheesy.  However, the more difficult situations we face and overcome, the better we become. Thinking Outside of The Box Human beings tend to fall into thought patterns.  We approach new situations based on what we have experienced before.  There is nothing wrong with that habit.  Nevertheless, we add tools to our toolbox when we are forced to step beyond what we know.  This learning often comes from tuning a process; otherwise, we would have implemented it differently the first time.  We are effectively asked to solve the same problem in a different way.  That is an excellent way to grow. Analysis Practice The best software developers (and problem solvers) are very good at analyzing a situation or problem.  One of the performance tuning benefits is that it provides us practice at analyzing our code or something written by others.  We need to step through the solution and judge it step-by-step in an attempt to find a better solution.  This process is high-end thinking and problem-solving.  Think of it as similar to going to the gym and lifting the heavier weights. Episode Challenge: Plan your next performance tuning project? Read more about advancing your career.

As annoying things go, planning is not at the top of the list.  However, developers tend to feel they are most productive when they are writing code.  Therefore, planning can be frustrating.  It almost forces us to be patient and define an approach before getting to work.  Nevertheless, there are many benefits of planning, and it is an easy topic for finding the bright side. Look Before You Leap Many wise words point to the benefits of planning.  We may feel better in the short-term by stepping into implementation, but that can easily be overwhelmed by pain due to improper planning.  We all work better when we have time to think through an approach.  That is why things like panic and knee-jerk reactions are not considered paths to success.  When we plan, we force ourselves to think through something at least a little.  That alone can sometimes save a lot of time by avoiding foolish assumptions and identifying gaps. Practice Makes Perfect Planning and estimation are skills that require training.  The more we do these things, the better we get.  Thus, any time we spend planning will be time spent getting better at a valuable skill.  We also cannot plan without estimating to some extent.  Those combined skills can help us avoid being late and even improve our use of time.  When you are managing your most valuable resource (time) better, it is a strong argument for ROI.  The short-term cost of planning instead of doing pays off in the long run Avoiding Potholes We have probably all had that situation where a road obstacle or pothole becomes apparent too late.  We may have a rough bump or worse.  These situations occur when we do not have enough time to respond to the environment.  Therefore, moving at a slower speed can help us avoid these problems.  Planning is sort of like setting a reasonable pace for your journey.  You are forced to pick your head up and look at what is coming down the road.  When we do this, we can avoid missteps and keep things from falling between the cracks. Episode Challenge: How well has your planning worked for you? Read more about advancing your career.

Almost all Developers prefer to skip most meetings.  These are not activities we tend to look forward to with joy.  However, we can get positives from meetings.  Not all of these activities are created the same.  Nevertheless, an appropriate agenda and dedication to focus during this time can be very fruitful. An Agenda Is Critical There are many ways a meeting can go "off the rails."  That may be why we so often find meetings to be annoying, or at least time we cannot get back.  We need focus if we want to receive positives from meetings.  While we can have many goals for a meeting, maintaining focus is a common trait for success.  This requirement is no different from so many other things we discuss.  Have a reason "why" and make sure you stick to that. A Change Is As Good As A Rest We have mentioned the idea of walking away from a problem to solve it sooner.  This recommendation can be a flip to another task or going for a walk.  We can also take a mental break and step into a meeting.  This change of scenery is an opportunity to stay productive while utilizing a different part of your mind.  When you consider this benefit, you can see where it is even better than staring out a window or letting your mind wander.  A good meeting will help you avoid drifting back to thinking about the latest difficult problem you are working through. Teamwork One of the obvious positives from meetings is that it is the essence of teamwork.  While there are presentations we may be asked to sit through, a meeting (by definition) includes feedback and discussion.  That means this is an excellent opportunity for us to come together as a team.  We also get to validate our assumptions about communications and interactions.  When we skip meetings, we can end up completely lost in incorrect assumptions. Episode Challenge: DO you walk into meetings with a proper mindset and attitude? Read more about advancing your career.

Grunt work is often a significant portion of our job that makes it feel like "work."  It is not the fun part of our day.  However, there are pros and cons to this well-known task. What is Grunt Work? Let's start with a definition.  Investopedia provides an excellent example. Grunt work is an expression used to describe thankless and menial work. Grunt work can also refer to jobs that lack glamour and prestige or are boring and repetitive. I think the keywords of "thankless" and "boring" are enough to provide the negatives for this type of work.  However, we have a bright side we can focus on as well. A Refreshing Grunt I think about Tim Allen's trademark grunting sound as part of this factor.  Sometimes it is refreshing to turn off our brain to some extent.  Work can provide some of these opportunities.  The keyword in our definition that points to this is "menial."  Our daily work can be mentally draining.  We spend long hours solving highly complex problems.  While a vacation is an excellent way to recharge, we can also benefit from doing less challenging work.  Think of how some physical workout routines alternate days from light to heavy workouts.  Grunt work gives us a way to stay productive and yet expend less energy than usual. Automation Ideas The last word in the definition provides another positive insight.  Anything we run into that is repetitive is a candidate for automation.  That means we have a potential for a feature, product, or maybe just a side project (or hustle). A simple example from my past was a "build and deploy" process for an application I was working on.  I was at a point where I was not only deploying code; I was rebuilding a database.  While I had a series of menial commands configured to get the job done, it still was time-consuming.  I had to sit there throughout the process.  I recognized the repetitive nature and well-defined steps were perfect for automation.  Therefore, I spent some time getting to know Ant and built a script that allowed me to enter a single command to get that process done.  I was then able to refill my water bottle during the process or otherwise regain a little time. Episode Challenge: List recent grunt work and review it for some possible automated solution? Read more about advancing your career.

Outliers and niche requests can often push us over the line from a simple solution to a complex one.  We commonly can get that eighty percent of the cases addressed in our initial code.  However, an outlier gets into the far more difficult final twenty percent mentioned in the Pareto principle.  These "new" requirements or missed details can cause headaches and missed deadlines.  However, they have a bright side as well. A Stronger Solution First and foremost, the more cases our solution is tested against (and it supports), the stronger it is.  In an extreme example, consider a calculator that only adds single-digit numbers.  That is not very useful.  It needs to handle a broader range of numbers and include "outliers" like adding negative numbers to be something worthwhile. A Way To Build Problem-Solving Skills Any time we are asked to stretch our skills, we have an opportunity to grow.  You do not grow much by doing the same thing repeatedly.  Instead, you build on past success to step into new challenges.  That is almost the definition of niche requests.  We have a standard solution and then are asked to modify it also to support the additional need.  This request can be as time-consuming as sending as back to the proverbial drawing board.  It can also be something that requires us to alter the existing solution to make it more flexible or scalable.  In either case, we are likely to grow. A Source Of New Products The best ROI on these niche requests is when it leads to a new product or feature.  We may have to spend additional time to expand on our solution.  That is ok when it can be paid for with a new product or increased sales. Episode Challenge: What did you learn from the last outlier you had to provide for? Read more about advancing your career.