Developing vs. Communicating
Tom · Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008, 6:50 PM · Krehbiel Tech
In response to Caio Proiete's How to be a better developer? (Which is, in turn, a response to Rodrigo DÃaz Concha's How to be a better developer?)
Most of the tips are fine. But two of Caio Proiete's recommendations for getting better are: "Write technical articles" and "Give technical presentations."
I would argue that those two things will only help you become a better communicator, which is obviously a good skill to have, but I would consider it less in the development area and more in the analysis area. Ultimately, the only way to become a better developer is to develop software. Over and over again. For a long time. Only then will you become a better developer, young grasshopper.
Also: One of Rodrigo DÃaz Concha's tips is "Forum Participation." I've found that you have to take developer forums with a heavy dose of salt. Sometimes -- okay, really, it's most of the time -- the solutions you find on forums are not that great. I can't even count the number of times I've found shaky solutions on forums. Sometimes it's corrected, sometimes not. Besides, forum participation is more of a communication and social networking thing. It might help you land a job somewhere, but become a better developer? I'm not convinced.
Cross-posted to http://krehbieltech.blogspot.com/2008/02/developing-vs-communicating.htmlTags: Programming(108)
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Reader Comments
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Caio Proiete · 2/14/2008 5:06 pm
Hello Krehbiel, Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
For some reason, I didn't receive any trackback from your post, and only discovered it now, thanks to Google Analytics. Pity!
I think you made a good point on highlighting the communication skills improvement you get from writing and presenting technical stuff, and I actually agree with you.
But... If you read carefully what I wrote in my post, I don't think you get a better developer by presenting or writing stuff. What I believe is that you do get a better developer when you are PREPARING yourself to do such things.
As an MCT for the last four years, I really believe I become a better developer every time I have to prepare myself to teach a developer training such as C#, SQL Server, etc...
Thanks! Caio Proiete
Caio Proiete · 2/14/2008 12:05 pm
Hello Krehbiel,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
For some reason, I didn't receive any trackback from your post, and only discovered it now, thanks to Google Analytics. Pity!
I think you made a good point on highlighting the communication skills improvement you get from writing and presenting technical stuff, and I actually agree with you.
But... If you read carefully what I wrote in my post, I don't think you get a better developer by presenting or writing stuff. What I believe is that you do get a better developer when you are PREPARING yourself to do such things.
As an MCT for the last four years, I really believe I become a better developer every time I have to prepare myself to teach a developer training such as C#, SQL Server, etc...
Thanks!
Caio Proiete
Rodrigo Diaz Concha · 2/7/2008 6:11 am
Hey Thomas! Great thoughts. Just to clarify my Forum Participation topic. The idea behind that is when you see a question that you know how to solve it, you can write the code or whatever it's needed in order to solve it; so it allows you to reproduce the problem scenario and solve it yourself and obtain a significative learning about the other's problem. I really wasn't thinking about reading other's answers (cause as a matter of fact they're sometimes wrong as you pointed out), but doing it yourself.
Thank you very much for your ideas and comments! :D
Rodrigo Diaz Concha