Working Code Podcast - Episode 190: Career Advice To Younger Self

On today's show, Carol and I reflect on our careers and come up with advice that we'd give to our younger selves. Exercises like this are always a challenge because we have to contend with counterfactuals. That is, we have to either imagine a future that could have been; or, we have to have faith that alternative paths would still have gotten us to where we are today. Neither of these are a certainty.

With that said, the following advice should be taken with measure:

• Ben: Don't conflate mental breakthroughs with progress. Just because you could solve a problem doesn't mean that the solution you came up with is worth using.

• Carol: Remember to keep some work-life balance (if you can afford to). Being unhappy at work for a long period of time is never worth it.

• Ben: Keep things simple, especially when it comes to data representation. I know that I've mentioned Rich Hickey's talks a thousand times in our podcast; but, I can't help myself—please go watch Simple Made Easy.

• Carol: Never be afraid to say, "I don't know". This is never the wrong answer. And, being vulnerable gives other people at work permission to do the same. Whenever possible, lead by example.

• Ben: Databases indexes are crazy powerful! Not only do they work wonders for performance, leaning on the database constraints will make your application more robust and safe.

• Carol: Spend more time learning and less time trying to solve problems. While problem solving is obviously important, learning is an investment that accrues value over a life-time.

• Ben: Wait until problems arise before you solve them. That's not to say that you shouldn't account for obvious issues in your application design. But, don't try to solve DDOS protection on day-one.

What advice would you give your younger self?

All that and more on this week's show:

... featuring these beautiful, beautiful people:

• Adam Tuttle → Website, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Carol Weiler → Twitter, LinkedIn
• Tim Cunningham → Twitter, LinkedIn
• Ben Nadel (that's me) → Website, Twitter, LinkedIn

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

For the full show notes and links, visit the episode page. And, be sure to follow the show and come chat with us on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

Short link: https://bennadel.com/4695