4 Habits of Great Programmers

Emulating the habits and routines of successful people is a very effective way to improve yourself. Becoming a great programmer is a long road - but that doesn’t mean you can’t chip away at it bit by bit. I’ve noticed that many of our best developers share the same core habits/routines.

If you can adopt just one of these today, it will move you one step closer to your goal.

1.They are never done learning: It’s an old trope, but that doesn’t make it untrue. As soon as you think you’re an expert in a subject, you’ve taken your first step backward. Be open to learning, be open to suggestions and be willing to teach others.

2.Working code is the beginning, not the end: Many programmers have their attitude that their job is to write functional code. Great programmers consider that the first step, rather than the end goal. Improve on that first iteration, optimize it, annotate it. Make it as perfect as you can. That’s how you improve.

3.They read other people's code to improve their own: Just like a writer improves by reading great authors, programmers improve by reading other people's code. So head over to somewhere like GitHub, pick a well-regarded coder and take a look at their code. Looking over it with a critical eye but an open mind. Try and understand the logic they used. Consider how you would improve their code then act on it. This isn’t a mental exercise!

4.They learn techniques, not tools: With so many frameworks and languages popping up, it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. You are striving to become a great programmer, not a great Javascript (or C, or Python ….) programmer. Focus on understanding how languages work at a deeper level. Learn the fundamentals, as these rarely change.