How to become a good developer?

29 Comments

• Awesome post, it is really pretty much spot on.
  The only part that is hard is the 9th point really, Visit Technology Events.
  
  Most of them are outside my country, in like USA or other part of the World.
  
  Travelling to it, visiting it and similar are often very expensive and more or less impossible.
  
  Wished they would hold smaller events of Mix and TechEd in other countries afterwards the big one, so many people can visit it as possible.
  
  The 3de point is very good, Code, code and code is the best way to keep the brain uptodate and still learn more and more.
  
  Sadly, you need sometimes something to code and not just regular stuff like Hello World, that would be pretty much dumb and stupid.
  
  The ultimate would be finding something that you can work on outside your regular job, for years to come and keep improving it, what that would be i have no clue.
  
  Thanks for the great post!
  

• About events. Although I live in Europe visiting TechEd EMEA is not cheap event plus I have to travel to other side of Europe (flights, hotels etc). But it is only once a year and one year is time long enough to get prepared for that event.
  
  For events that are too far (USA, Australia, Asia) it is always possible to check out if event presentation are made available online. By example, check out MIX2008 site. You can find all event materials there. There are videos and presentations and you can watch them online or download interesting ones to your computer.
  

• True, TechEd is just once a year so one can plan for it, even get the job to pay for it or something.
  
  Watching a presentation live compared to on the computer is way different, you don't get the social interaction like you get when you are on a event.
  
  Always fun meeting similar people that is working in the business with the same stuff, talk, eat, drink together and have fun.
  
  I have been looking at Mix site and it is good, i am greatful for it.
  

• Live is always better, of course. But if it is not possible to go to event then looking videos and presentations is still better than nothing.
  
  For USA events, I guess, one needs also visa and getting visa is another project (couple of days running between different officials and proving in embassy one hundred times that I'm going there for business and I don't have any plan to bomb something or kill somebody etc). Maybe one day this visa horror goes a little bit easier and then I will visit USA events too. But until it happens I check videos online and imagine a good aura of these events around me :)
  

• 10. Read blogs. Simply subscribing to the ASP.NET article of the day has really been a huge help in getting to know what's out there. The framework is so large, there's almost always the right tool for the job, but you have to being aware that the tool exists before you can use it. Seeing the types of challenges other people are facing and the tools they are using also can really help you weed out what are the most effective solutions.
  

• Thanks Mark! Blogs, I think, should go under communities stuff I think. Let's wait a little bit formore feedback and then I will make update to this entry.
  

• True about the visa and traveling part.
  and Yes, it is awesome that they put it up for free afterwards, not all that does that kind of friendly stuff.
  
  When it comes to blogs, i am subscribing to the weblogs.asp.net feed, what more dotnet feeds are out there that is good to subscribe on?
  

• There are also MSDN blogs: http://blogs.msdn.com/
  

• 11. Visit the forums and help people. Helping people not only gives you the opportunity to feel good about helping the community it gives you the chance to look at a large variety of problems faced by other developers and attempt to solve them.
  

• Thanks, bechbd. Your advice should perfectly fit under communities point.
  

• 12.
  Don't read to much of this stuff and just start doing it...
  
  (just a reminder to myself)
  

• Thanks, Erik. I think this suggestion should go under books point.
  

• Read Blogs,
  Participate in forum,
  view Webcasts and techinal interview specially of the technology geeks.
  Help your fellow developers both seniors as well as junior in there technical problems.
  

• Nice summarized Post
  

• Excellent points. IMO, reading and participating in communities are two of the most beneficial things that most developers do not do.
  

• Alex, if you work in company where are many developers then in the end of the day you just want to rest from everything related to development. :)
  

• Great points ...But I thinks thinks like the project requirements and client reqirements do matter..You just can't go over the top with technologies when time frames and deliveries have to taken care of right!
  

• great article
  
  www.codepal.co.in
  

• Hi i was looking to take up the carrer in .net so rigorusly looking for something like this its interesting i shall work on it thank you
  

• This question was in my mind for a long time.
  After I read this I got a good solution.
  Really interesting..
  

• This is a wonderful job.
  

• I want to be good PHP developer in Thailand but sometime I need some of this article to cheer me up.
  
  Thank you very much.
  
  Best regards,
  Jeeradate K.
  

• Great !!! i like it !
  

• [... - weblogs.asp.net is one relavant source of tips on this issue,[... -
  

• That is really nice but be sure you have the gut and start acting.
  

• great read... thank you for sharing useful points.
  

• Great,
  i was facing some probloms, like i don't want study daily, i was thinking that i'm not expert. but i got your point, to be a developer i should prepare myself mentally that i have to learn new thing everyday and i need to study everyday.
  
  Thanks
  

• Now i am thinking, Am i a good Developer?
  
  Thanks for good post.
  

• Very usefull points. Thanx