Hey y'all! Welcome to CodeNewbie Podcast, our little corner of DEV in which we share weekly interviews with tech professionals to give you supportive advice to further your development career.
Last week we released our first episode of this season with @shawnbasquiat, all about the influx of AI's impact on job hunts, keeping an open mind, and reframing our scope for networking.
PSSST: If you'd like to listen, be my guest!
Listen right here on DEV:
At the end of each episode we have four main questions we ask our guests. You'll have to tune in to hear the full answers, but in the meantime, I would love to hear y'alls responses to my favorite question in the roundup this week.
The question is: "What is the worst advice you've ever received?"
Shawn shared with us that in his opinion, saying "I can't" when someone gives you advice is the worst. Not only does this hold back the conversation, but it fails at providing an opportunity for growth. He posits that instead of "I can't", we can instead ask the question "how can I?".
Let me know the worst advice you've ever received, I'd love to hear it. 🤪 Have a great rest of your day y'all!
See ya tomorrow with our new episode as well.
Top comments (9)
Worst advice I have ever received:
Just use Comic Sans for all your programming comments, it'll make your code more readable!
By the way, did you know that you can turn on Comic Sans for your font on DEV via your settings?
iconic
Lol, that's actually pretty brilliant.
Oh NO!
So, I just saw the post "What are your favorite Public Speaking tips?" which reminded me of the classic advice to just imagine the whole room in their underwear. I don't think I've ever had anybody actually give me that advice sincerely, but it does crack me up to think that that's a common thing, haha. 😝
You ever hear of the "Milk does a body good" marketing campaign? Well, it's all a lie!
So all those posters out there that advised young me to drink milk to become strong and healthy and the next Michael Jordan... they were all giving pretty bad advice.
LOL. This is a great thing.
The worst advice I have ever received was probably while teaching— though also the worst advice is always SO helpful in understanding what not to do or what doesn't feel right!
I used to teach art and english at a private school, and was constantly getting criticism that my approaches towards punishment were too relaxed, or that I needed to act differently for students to take me seriously.
I think a lot of things on this so this is my chaotic response to this criticism: The thing was— my students WERE taking me seriously, they had been taught to fear their teachers in the past, which made school really difficult and scary for them. In my job as a teacher I saw the crux of the responsibility to be to inspire my students to enjoy learning, to teach the functions and importance of deadlines in the society we live in, and to prepare them to share their thoughts wider in the rooms that they were in. Hot take (maybe): I don't ever believe that it is a teacher's job to punish their students for bad behavior, missing deadlines, or the like, because it teaches students to fear making mistakes instead of teaching the student appropriate and related consequences for their actions (like how we are taught discipline naturally in our everyday lives!).
When we engage deeper with students about the "hows" and "whys" of their actions, we are more able to help them understand how their behavior impacts a system, and that's where the true magic begins in crafting a young mind!!!! Also more than that— I do not need to change the way that I act to make someone else respect me, gosh!
Anyways— I think a lot more things on this but ultimately, I also believe that respect needs to be earned by everyone, and children/child students are not immune to that. Gentleness is POWERFUL and NEEDED!