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Ben Halpern
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What harmful habits do developers pick up over time?

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thetinygoat profile image
Sachin Saini πŸ¦„

I think overworking is a major one, and it has caused me to burnout countless times.

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mithil467 profile image
Mithil Poojary

Yeah staying awake for a long time at night is a major one!

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danielkun profile image
Daniel Albuschat

I got rid of that one after I had many minor health issues last year. Now I value my sleep more than programming or learning

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Very true

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

I'll second this

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waylonwalker profile image
Waylon Walker

It's impossible to learn everything. There is way too much. Learn about things you need. Maybe a surface level of adjacent things. Build a deep expertise in your core skills.

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ayedaemon profile image
AyeDaemon

I sometimes agree to the point you are making here but seeing this person (linkedin.com/in/vimaldaga/ ) always change my mind that you can be expert in anything you want and It is not a waste of time.

What are your views on this?

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waylonwalker profile image
Waylon Walker

I dont think that you can be an expert in anything. Anything is a bit broad. There are always going to be topics that take a lifetime, the right person, a bit of luck, and the right developments in the surrounding industry. These things produce historical figures like "Einstein". There are also going to be things that require teams of people, the chrome "V8 Engine" for instance.

Now can you achieve working expertise at, Software Engineering, Data Science, Business, Entrepreneurship, JavaScript, Python, Blogging, ... Things that are achievable by a broad audience ( requiring a bit less luck and raw talent ).

Can you be an expert at anything Heck yes

Can you be an expert at everything Definitely Not

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

So true, even Einstein couldn't be an expert at "anything", and he would have been the first to admit it. I guess true mastery lies in knowing your limits!

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

I checked out his profile, and I see he's an expert (or at least knowledgeable) in cloud/devops and in big data, those 2 fields - not in "everything" (for example, web dev or mobile dev aren't mentioned).

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waylonwalker profile image
Waylon Walker

πŸ’― Big difference between Anything and Everything.

Your own personal talents, skills, and experience limit what is reasonable to go for.

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez • Edited

A few that come to mind (and had happened to me before).

  • Spending way too much time sitting either working or just browsing around
  • Having disparate eating times and not eating real food much
  • Not having work boundaries and letting the work spills out to other activities (now is even more prevalent since all of us are working from home)
  • Not having times to stretch, move or even break a sweat

I probably could go on and on but those are just a few πŸ˜…

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I read that if you take a break, but the break involves another screen, your brain really doesn't actually reap the benefits of the break.

So moving from your computer, plopping on the couch and scrolling Reddit etc. is really not what you want to be doing if you can help it.

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

Exactly! That's what I tell some students on calls. Having a structure of work & break times (like the Pomodoro technique)
And the important thing is that when people are working, they try to focus and get stuff done. And when they are taking the break, they fully disengage from pc or phone and just go for a walk, go to the bathroom, make a drink, talk with someone or whatever to make it an actual break.

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sookah profile image
Saujan Ghimire

amen..

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chakrihacker profile image
Subramanya Chakravarthy

Please go on and write a post πŸ“

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

Hahaha if it will help you then I'm surely going to schedule that post. 😁

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recss profile image
Kevin K. Johnson

Whosever is reading this: your posture is probably terrible right now, haha.

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jsn1nj4 profile image
Elliot Derhay

It was! Thank you for the correction. Lol

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lyatziv profile image
Lavi Yatziv

Thanks for the reminder!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Here's one I suspect to be prevalent, or at least it's a bad one of mine:

Never not working on a problem in the back of your mind... Sometimes I keep an issue spinning around in my head all weekend when I'd be better off forgetting about it and coming back on Monday. This probably afflicts me particularly badly as an entrepreneur with a bit more at stake, but I've had this problem in most of my work forever.

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mungojam profile image
Mark Adamson

That's very true, and it's worse with working from home at the moment. It can mean that I'm not all there for family even if I'm not at my computer. Maybe the key is to take more time out to ponder things during the working day.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

In the last couple weeks I've been doing a mid-day workout... Which for me is a weighted-vest walk/light jog with an audiobook. Basically taking my audiobook/podcast habit and making it more of a workout.

The break is nice, and the exercise definitely helps my brain health and gives clarity.

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mungojam profile image
Mark Adamson

Googling weighted vest now πŸ™‚

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yay!

Habits are hard to form, even when I had the idea to take on this routine, the vest sat around unused for several weeks before I truly kicked it in, but now I feel like I'm over the hump and really enjoying making time for it.

No approach/routine works for everyone, but I do think exercise really is about the best thing one can do with any number of feelings of stress, anxiety, etc.

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mungojam profile image
Mark Adamson

I agree, I need to build a replacement for the weekly parkrun as that made such a difference the last year but it won't start again any time soon I expect

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arindamdawn profile image
Arindam Dawn

Saying YES to everything! Sometimes saying NO is a life-saver

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danielkun profile image
Daniel Albuschat

Agreed! Also, underestimating is very popular among devs

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oloryn profile image
Ben Coleman • Edited

Which may be not only a dev problem, but also a management problem. Tom DeMarco points out that we don't estimate well because we get so little practice at it. What we call 'estimation' is often actually haggling over what the schedule will be, at times going up against an attitude of "What's the earliest you can't prove you won't be done?" Between that and a potential ego motivation to make shorter estimates, it's not surprising that underestimating is common.

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Ben Halpern

Great one

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot ⭐ • Edited

Becoming passive-aggressive on pull request reviews because it makes them feel superior and demonstrate their experience. Like a virus that, if someone does it to you as a junior, you'll do it right back as a senior. Kills productivity and becomes totally self-defeating.

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sanchitrk profile image
Sanchit Rk

Developer ego, not having open mind

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Sandor Dargo

Considering themselves senior enough to ignore practicing.

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akshaykhale1992 profile image
Akshay Khale

I always thought that Programmers and Mathematicians are alike Analytical, Smart, Thinkers, and Introverts. The problems are also the same that includes Overthinking, Unable to fit in with regular people, unable to maintain emotional health, and inability to turn off the mind, just a few thing on the top of my mind.