Recently there was a question on /. about what to do right as a new programmer. After I posted my response I thought “This is just a good answer to any question that starts with ‘What to do right…’”. Read and enjoy!

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Do not believe in finites, infinites, right or wrong.

In regards to your business logic…

If someone says this will always happen this way, be ready for it not to happen that way.

If someone says says this will never happen, be ready for it to happen.

Plan for bad data.

Plan for a connection to another system, database, etc. to fail. Handle it gracefully.

Nothing you do in application development is right or wrong so long as it accomplishes the business objectives.

There may be better, more efficient ways to do things. But give 10 programmers one business problem and they will solve it 10 different ways.

Programming is an art not a science. I would avoid anybody else that tells you otherwise.

Do not get attached to a programming language or any code you’ve written. Don’t get pissed off if you burn away a week of your life code some amazing code and then find out it was all for not because of a requirements change. It can be frustrating. But it is just 1s and 0s and in the big scheme of life it is just unimportant.

Schedule your life first, then schedule your coding around it. Doing it the other way is just unhealthy. Physically and mentally. When you do code do it with extreme passion. Don’t do anything halfass. Always strive to learn something every single day. Be the go to guy.