From time to time, I’ll hear someone mention that whenever I code something, it never breaks. While hearing these compliments is super badass, it has recently triggered a thought of whether I’m a good developer or is it because I follow good standards.

Addressing the elephant in the room –  I know the term ‘good’ is relative and my programs do break, a lot. People just don’t see the real issues hidden in the depths of my logs.

With the obvious out the way, this leaves me to determine whether my years of professional experience has brought me to this level of ‘unbreakable‘ code, or whether I’m just that damn good at following best practices.

Good Developer View

I’m a firm believer that in order for you to be an alpha programmer, you have to do know and do things that push you beyond your limits. Examples could be consistent learning, tackling new projects, or fighting fires from accidentally f*cking sh*t up; FYI, I’m would say I’m an expert in the realm of screwing things up. I personally love to learn, that’s probably why I enjoy IT so much; I know I could never learn EVERYTHING about it. I consume information from YouTube videos, electronic/hardcopy books, articles, and especially when working on projects. I find I grow exponentially when I’m thrown in the deep end on big complex projects. Ironically, these types of projects where is where I tend to FUBAR them. Regardless of how much I mess up, I’d like to say that years of going through this cycle has sharpened my skills to accept compliments and not make the same mistake more than 3 times.

Good Standard View

On the other hand, I work with very intelligent people that have survived developing code from Windows 1.0 to Windows 10. These are the same programmers that paved a beautiful road for me that would never lead me to making erroneous decisions. I’m talking mad-thousand worded documentation, countless code snippet examples, proven white papers from Fortune 500 companies, and a direct path to their door to ask any question. If I simply followed the road, how could I ever make any mistake? The documentation clearly states to NOT do this, the snippet shows how EXACTLY to do that, and these papers tell me WHY I should do it. It’s like being spoon-fed the secret to success because everyone has already done it before me.

Evaluation

In conclusion, I think it’s a mixture of both. I think good standards are inclusive of being a good developer. The cycle of sharpening skills and exposure of new techniques give more reason to follow standards and best practices to get things done efficiently. Should things not develop nicely, there nothing wrong with developing new standards; and that’s where I also see good developers shine. So basically, I just wasted your time on my thoughts of good developers or good standards because they depend on each other.

Happy coding!