Here are some things I wish I knew before I started... well, anything! ^_^ These range from unspoken knowledge around programming paradigms to self-behavioral management. (Plus whatever else comes to mind.)

These are not maxims; they're things I remind myself of. I'm presenting them here in case they help other people as much as they help me. You may not agree, and that's totally valid! I am not an Oracle. Or Lucent. Nor do I have 9 plans. I'm just me, and I'm still figuring out what that means.

Also, these are in no particular order. Eventually, they will be tagged and categorized. Everything is a work in progress. Oh! That reminds me!

Let's go! 🚀🚀

• Clarity matters more than cleverness.

  • Code golf in prod is an anti-pattern.
  • Speed of code matters more than compactness of code.
  • Expeditiously written, yet elegant code is a good goal.

• TDD, REPLs, and short dev cycles are dope. 🔥🔥🔥

• You aren't gonna need it. Refactor when necessary. Don't prematurely over-optimize.

• Everything is a work in progress. It's okay if something isn't done; few things truly are, so... why stress so much? Be kinder to yourself.

• Perfection isn't real. Get as close as you want, but don't do so to your detriment.

• Execute.

• C# is discount Java. Kidding 😜. They're pretty similar, though.

• Try that thing you don't think you like. You might learn something, or perhaps fall in love.

• Code explains the comments to the computer, rather than comments explaining code to the human.

  • Comment-driven development is not a myth, but a real thing that's quite powerful.

• There's really no perfect paradigm — just the right tool at the right moment.

  • There can be more than one 'right tool.'

• Functional programming is largely pipelining and ETL on a small scale.

• Avoid returning nulls and voids if you can. Be clear about errors. Or, "Handle your errors, Lilith!""

• You do not need to be completely brilliant to code. But you do need to be persistent! And voraciously, continually learning.

  • You may need to be a little stubborn. It's a labor of love. 💙

• Object-oriented programming is really about sending messages around.

  • Object methods are things you request, not functions you apply. 🤯

• A factory pattern is a real thing.

• You know those square brace things in C#? Those are attributes. And they're kinda neat. Investigate them!

• Impostor syndrome lessens over time; it also gets easier to deal with the more you learn and grow.

• Whatever it is, it can probably wait. Take some notes, save your place, and go do the other, more important thing.

• Stay mindful of the cost of context-switching.

  • We are single-threaded, context-switching animals. We're great at throwing all of our brainpower at one thing at a time — but we're not so great at juggling multiple things.

• Always become a better asset to everyone around you.