What is your advice for the next generation of developers? Part 2/2

In a previous post, I introduced the first 4 categories of advice I received from my guests on the DevJourney podcast. Here are the last 3 categories.

Mindset

There is more than just programming (Adrian Bolboaca)
Be conscious of the mental models you chose (Richard Rodger)
Have strong opinions, but hold them losely (Simon Harrer)
Get in touch with your values (April Wensel)
It's OK to be wrong. It's not OK to remain wrong (Barry Dorrans)
Be humble, always (Shawn Wildermouth)
Be humble (Adam Barr)
Ignore fanatics (Julie Moronuki)
Don‘t burn up your bridges (Trisha Gee)
Look for opportunities (Rob Kendal)
Value simplicity (Kai König)
Don‘t seek perfection (Kemdi Ebi)
Write to your future self to explain your decisions, it is way too easy to be hard on yourself retrospectively (Bubunyo Nyabor)
First, find your passion (Joseph Young)
Stay humble, it's ok not to know everything. If you know everything, you are in the wrong place! (Khaled Souf)
Don't do something just to do it, do it because you are passionate about it (Tracy Lee)
You are not supposed to know everything (Charlie Gerard)
Find & Develop your passion (Irwin Williams)
Develop your curiosity (Ted M Young)

This part is as deep as it is wild. The following resonnated deeply with me.

1. Richard Rodger's "Be conscious of the mental models you chose" stuck with me for a long time. What are my biases? How do they influence the models I chose to represent the world?
2. I also stand firm behind the idea of "Finding your passion first". My job is very close to my passion and so many pieces of my day job make me incredibly happy. And as far as I can tell, it's visible, and it's contagious.
3. Finally, I love Simon Harrer's advice of "have strong opinions loosely held". I have never learned faster than when building a strong opinion and standing my ground. Either I was right and learned a lot. Or I was wrong, realized it and learned a lot. Either way is good. Either way is helpful.

Trust

Stop being afraid, go out (Jeremy Likness)
Believe in yourself (Ali Spittel)
Don't worry (too much) (Ben Orenstein)
Believe in yourself, be an entrepreneur (Charity Majors)
Learn to say I don‘t know (Woody Zuill)
Don‘t be intimidated by the OSS world (Kapunahele Wong)
Find & Develop your passion (Irwin Williams)
Develop your curiosity (Ted Young)
Do not compare yourself to others (Pariss Chandler)
When you start a new job, take it all in, don't put any expectations on yourself (Molly Struve)
Trust yourself, and if you don't know what that looks like right now, figure that out (Denise Gosnell)
Trust yourself, work hard, work smart, identify your purpose (Hadelin de Ponteves)

I honestly didn't expect many advice in this category. What I found deeply refreshing though is that those advice are less of "you know more than you think" than "you know nothing and it's OK".

Focus

Be driven and focused on what you do (Katharine Jarmul)
One goal at a time (Saron Yitbarek)

I wondered if I should put those two in the "mindset" category. But I think they deserve their own. In our modern attention-stealing, multi-tasking world, focus is a truly valuable skill.

Was there an advice you particularly liked? Which one? And why?

Conclusion

All in all, the picture of success for developers is not at all one of technical skills and master, but of stability, communication, trust in oneself, constant learning, relying and helping on others and knowing where they want to go. How cool is that?

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash