The other day I purchased My Job Went To India (And All I Got Was This Lousy Book) 52 Ways To Save Your Job by Chad Fowler. It's a great book on how to
architect your careerfor software engineers. Each chapter ends with an Act On It section that encourages you to apply the advice provided. My shiny new blog is a result of an Act On It.
Chapter 12 is about finding a mentor, and the Act On It section encourages you to
Mentor Yourselfby choosing someone you admire as a role model, list and rank their most important attributes, and rate yourself as they would rate you on those attributes. Then you can determine what you should work on.
I did this activity, and determined the attribute of my chosen mentor that I most need to work on is a prolific writing habit. This includes blogging, web articles, contributions to mailing lists, and books. I've resolved to do the following:
- Get a blog <Check />
- Post at least once a week to said blog
- Respond relevantly to at least one mailing list post per day
- Take the next opportunity to write a technical article
3 comments:
are you saying that to be a good developer you should be a blogger/writer too? i'm not sure i agree with that. i think it's great to blog and write articles but my experience is that 90% of the people that write aren't good coders because they are always writing in the *perfect* world scenario. it reminds me about that bumper sticker, "those who can't, teach".
so i promise to harass you if you ever start to slip in to that 90%. ;o)
Jeff,
It is the reflective nature of Ron Jeffries’ writing that I admire. Writing helps me distill ideas. Publishing the writings provides a very public way of reflecting on why and how I do the things I do. This reflection is a crucial part of improving my skills and abilities.
Also with respect to that bumper sticker we learn the most when we have to teach what we think we know.
I believe you get better at things through practice. You'll learn how to write better through practice as much as you will through blogging. You've set a good goal and I like your stuff so far.
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