Check yourself before you wreck yourself

“Check your code…”

“Duh”

“…6 months after you write it”.

“What?! Why? That’s dumb, its already written and shipped”

This isn’t dumb. The product may have shipped but you’re still building applications, software or websites. This practice isn’t for the sake of the product, but for the sake of you.

You should be able to honestly look at your old code and be a bit disgusted. Not because its bad, but because it can be better — and you now know how you could write it better. If you’re not improving, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t just sit there typing away the same shit, find a better way to do it. Improve it.

By getting better you produce better work. 
That means better value. 
Better paychecks.

It’ll make you happier. I swear. You’ll recognize that you’re growing, and that’s always an awesome thing.

And with Great Knowledge, comes Greater Responsibility… or something like that.

Coworkers and colleagues will start coming to you for help, advice and your knowledge. Don’t hog this knowledge, share it with anyone who is interested. They want to grow and expand their knowledge just like you do, so why not help them out. I’ve been doing jQuery tips of the week with a few of my coworkers who are starting to swim in the ocean of jQuery goodness. I send them a few clips of something I’ve written, explain a new concept and have them figure out what the rest of it does. They seem to be enjoying it and learning from it.

Moral of the story : Improve your skillz and then share your skillz.

Check yourself, before you wreck yourself because if you don’t – you won’t last too long.

Tags: build, code, happy, improve, Life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Life Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.