11 Habits of Highly Effective Developers

In this episode Wes and Scott discuss 11 habits that will make you a better developer - everything from understanding the business goals behind your projects to maintaining work-life balance, staying curious, and developing empathy.

Freshbooks - Sponsor

Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section.

Sanity.io - Sponsor

Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get up and running by typing npm i -g @sanity/cli && sanity init in your command line. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax.

Show Notes

2:55 - You understand stakeholder and business goals

• What is the website (or project) ultimately trying to accomplish?
• How does the business make money?
• Don’t get caught up in your own “mama drama” about frameworks, but instead focus on how a particular framework will help achieve the end goal of the business

5:13 - You’re curious and always learning

• This industry is ever-changing and isn’t slowing down

7:36 - You have an open mind about new technology

• Don’t “poopoo” something because it’s intimidating, new, scary or different
• Like foods you’ve never tried, sometimes something unusual turns out to be game changing

9:57 - You ask for help

• #LifeHack - most people know more than you
• Be comfortable with NOT knowing
• Be comfortable with failing and with how others might perceive that
• Check your ego at the door

15:35 - You help others

• Helping others solidifies your own knowledge
• Answering questions
  • Stack Overflow
  • Quora
• Blogging
• YouTube videos
• Mentoring co-workers
• Not offering unwanted advice

19:12 - You have a “problem solver” mentality

• General curiosity - figuring out why things aren’t working
• Break things down into testable components to pinpoint an issue
• Have a clear head under pressure (e.g. interviews)

24:37 - You have fun with what you do

• Enjoying challenges
• Even if something isn’t particularly fun, you find ways to make it fun and interesting

27:54 - You understand work-life balance

• Burnout is huge in our industry
• It can be difficult when you love what you do, but it’s so important to maintain balance

34:00 - You are empathetic to your co-workers and users

• Be a team players while getting things done
• Make everyone around you better at what they do
• Be someone others want to work with by being inclusive and professional
  • Don’t make inappropriate jokes, put co-workers in a tough position, etc.

37:08 - You pay attention to detail

• Think about edge cases

39:03 - You’re part of the community

• Local meetups / lunch and learn
• Twitter #100daysofcode
• Conferences

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: Overcooked! 2
• Wes: Book - Rich Dad Poor Dad

Shameless Plugs

• Scott’s React Testing for Beginners Course
• Wes’ Advanced React Graph QL Course

Tweet us your tasty treats!

• Scott’s Instagram
• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes’ Instagram
• Wes’ Twitter
• Wes’ Facebook
• Scott’s Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets