Before all the laws of software, before the purpose of software, before the science of software design itself, there is a singular fact that determines the success or failure of a software developer. This fact makes the difference between the senior engineer who can seem to pick up new languages in a day and the junior developer who struggles for ten years just to get a paycheck, programming other people’s designs and never improving enough to get a promotion. It differentiates the poor programmers from the good ones, the good programmers from the great ones, and the great ones from the...

After few years on Warsztat (a Polish gamedev site) I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon. Every now and then there are Compos (programming competitions) organized in two different flavours. Some compos are single-run events that last only few hours, others are long-term (several days/weeks). And as an extra catch, the former are usually restricted to basic APIs (SDL, OpenGL etc) while the latter are free-for-all (all sorts of engines, UDK/Unity allowed).Now, results are somewhat shocking. Much more people participate in short compos than the long ones. But the best part is that qualit...

This post lists several benefits of taking a break during programming.You work smarter, not harder. Once, I worked really hard on a feature. For two weeks, 12 hours a day, I put in a lot of effort. After those two weeks, I took a break and came up with several ideas that made much of the work unnecessary.You think more clearly. Being tired has a similar effect as being drunk. At the end of a day, I often kid myself that I’ll just get this one thing finished quickly to have a fresh start the next day. In reality, I usually need to clean up yesterday’s messes then. If instead I fin...

Peter Knego states something interesting: “It's official: developers get better with age. And scarcer.”. He uses reputation and other metrics from StackOverflow to corroborate his point.His summary is:Number of coders drops significantly with age. Top developer numbers, at age 27, drop by half every 6-7 years.Developers in their 40s answer roughly twice as much and ask half the questions compared to colleagues in their 20s. It seems younger generation learns and older generation teaches.Quality of posts, i.e. upvotes earned by post, only slightly increases with age.Seniors earn the...

Why programming is unique profession - Presentation TranscriptIntroduction Some people says programming is difficult and for some others it is so easy. It not only depends on your capabilities, but your attitude for work. Programming is hard indeed, but not at all as difficult as life of a crook or joker who pretend, lie and act for living. Knowing what you do, life is going to be much more interesting and enjoyable for a programmer. You play with a dumb machine Computer is dumb machine. Unless you give precise instruction, the computer can not understand. Working with a dumb is obviously diff...

It is in fact a good list of proverbs and here are some of the frequently seen programming proverbs.Keep It Simple StupidDon’t Repeat YourselfA clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it – EinsteinSilence is construed as approval  ( Picked from Kevin blog )There is no smoke without fireThink first, Program laterNever assume the computer assumes anythingDon't trust anything from the user inputDo you have any favorite of the programming proverbs? what are they?You might find the below book interesting if you want to know more programming quotes .The Book t...

You probably program too much. Just when you've really gotten into your work, when your brain is entirely wrapped around your code, when your hands, eyes, and thoughts are working in harmony, stop. Look up. Think about when you're going to finish for the day. Look forward to shutting off your computer. Get outside a little. Programming, for all its mental exercise, is a very comfortable physical activity. ...

Bob Parsons (below) may be best known as the man standing next to the “GoDaddy Girls,” the busty spokesmodels for his online registration company, GoDaddy.Com.Gerry ImagesToday, he has a new catchphrase: billionaireSource : http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/06/24/a-new-billionaires-10-rules-for-success/The possible purchase of his company by private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and SilverLake Partners for more than $2 billion would make him the latest dot-com billionaire. It is unclear how much of the company he owns. Since it is closely held and hasn’t done much fund...