@elazar #longhornphp

What Makes a
Great Developer?

Matthew Turland

Good Afternoon!

My name is Matt
It's nice to see you!
Thank you for attending

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I'm @elazar — feel free to @ me

Slides

matthewturland.com/presentations

joind.in/talk/77d6e

Question of the Hour

Yoda from Star Wars

Want to Be
a Great Developer?

Four characters gathered around a computer from an early scene of the film The Social Network

Want to Know
Great Developers?

Four characters gathered around a computer from a scene in the film Hackers

Want to Hire
Great Developers?

Protagonist and antaognist from the film Antitrust

Want to Create
Great Developers?

The character Morpheus from the dojo fight scene in the film The Matrix

What Makes a
Developer Great?

The actor Daniel Radcliffe portraying the character Harry Potter from the eponymous books and films

No Single / Simple Answer

The answer to life, the universe, and everything from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

We Must Find Our Own

The characters Morpheus and Neo in the red pill-blue pill scene in the film The Matrix

PHP Women

phpwomen.org

PHP Mentoring

php-mentoring.org

Photo of me showing another conference attendee something on my laptop

Critical Skills

What qualities must a junior developer have?

Photo of child Jedi potentials from a scene in the Star Wars prequel films

Desire to Learn

Montage of the character Neo as he's learning martial arts from the film The Matrix

Desire to Improve

The character Joey from the film Hackers as he hacks into Ellingson

Capacity for Patience

The character Miyagi from the Karate Kid films

Advancement

What qualities must a senior developer have?

The character Luke Skywalker as portrayed in the film Return of the Jedi

It's Not About Code

Green and black code from the film The Matrix

I'm realizing more and more that being a good engineer isn't about pounding keys. I like that a lot.
— Graham Daniels (@greydnls)
November 20, 2015

"Less talk, more code." If you think that's what software is about... you have a lot to learn.
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei)
March 30, 2016

So much of what we do as developers isn’t just code. Let’s work on being more holistic with our approach to dev as human.
— Ben Edmunds (@benedmunds)
August 31, 2015

holistic: adj. characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected

It's Not About Perfection

The character The Architect from the Matrix film trilogy

“No program you write will ever be perfect” @Crell #PNWPHP
— Andrew Woods (@awoods)
September 12, 2015

Perfect code doesn't make great software. Useful code does. Here's to everyone trying to make useful code that doesn't suck.
— Luke Stokes (@lukestokes)
November 11, 2015

"Alyosha's Law: software is never 'done' - only occasionally shipped, and then eventually abandoned."
— Mark Nijhof (@abt_programming)
February 20, 2015

There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

~ Thomas Sowell, "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles"

Listen

The actor Ron Glass portraying the character Shepherd Book in the TV series Firefly

"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." ~Stephen R. Covey
— Charlie Ambler (@dailyzen)
October 31, 2015

I find I am in the most fascinating conversations when I don’t try to talk and just listen.
— Cal Evans (@CalEvans)
November 17, 2015

Ask not what your software can do for your users; ask what your users want to do with your software.
— Eric Wastl (@ericwastl)
October 8, 2015

Communicate

Members of the Binar race from an episode of the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation

OH "The secret to open source is not the best code, it's the best communication." @github vesea
— Jenny Wong (@miss_jwo)
January 25, 2016

Related: Conway's Law

My 6 yo asked what programming was like. I told him it was like making Lego out of words.
— Paul Graham (@paulg)
June 11, 2015

A model of the Millenium Falcon ship from the Star Wars films, built out of Lego blocks

Explain It To a Kid?

Photo of my four kids sitting in a park with our dogs

Picard management tip: Improve your vocabulary by reading books. Words can be your most powerful tools.
— Joe Sondow (@PicardTips)
May 26, 2016

I don't know why anyone thinks that programming doesn't require social skills.

It's mostly social skills.
— Paddy Foran (@paddycarver)
September 17, 2015

The character Dade from a scene in the film Hackers during which he uses social engineering to hack into a TV network

F*** programming puzzles. I want to know if an interview candidate can file a bug report worth a s***.
— Jonathan Simms (@slyphon)
September 11, 2015

If you leave a todo in code, don't only describe what to do, but also why you didn't do it.
— Tim de Pater (@trafex)
June 19, 2015

Seriously consider writing your library's documentation first. Trying to explain how to use code is instrumental in creating a decent API.
— Will Bond (@wbond)
September 16, 2015

Practice Empathy

My biggest take away from #phptek is that, as a community, we are starting to think about each other as people. That’s pretty cool.
— Jeff Carouth (@jcarouth)
May 23, 2015

sonder: n. the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one's own they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it

Behind every great programmer is a self-conscious person making it all up as they go, desperately hoping not to be found out.
— Justin Searls (@searls)
January 7, 2016

If someone disagrees with you, you don’t have to change your mind to empathize with them. Empathy is not the same as endorsement.
— Ed Finkler (@funkatron)
June 11, 2015

empathy: n. the ability to understand and share another's feelings
sympathy: n. feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune

Depression attacks us by making us feel alone, unworthy, and unable to reach out for help. Fight back. #WeAreNotAlone #HackTheStigma
— Matthew Turland (@elazar)
November 18, 2014

Open Sourcing
Mental Illness

osmihelp.org

Being a good senior dev is easy:

Don't tell; ask

Don't rewrite; pair and refactor

Don't sneer; encourage

Be kind.

— Ricardo Gladwell (@rgladwell)
October 24, 2015

Practice Humility

The characters Simon and Kaylee from the TV series Firefly

Picard diplomacy tip: The greatest threat to lasting mutual respect is egocentrism. It may never leave you, but resist it at every turn.
— Joe Sondow (@PicardTips)
May 16, 2016

The guy who created PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf) appears to have reached some higher level of coder enlightenment

PHP 8 is significantly better because it contains a lot less of my code.

I was really, really bad at writing parsers. I still am.

I did not develop the PHP we know today. I was simply the first developer.

I'm not a real programmer. I throw together things until it works then I move on.

— @woketopus, October 10, 2021

Tech conferences are always humbling and motivating. Great look at how much I don't know and prod to get learning.
— Jessica Rose (@jesslynnrose)
January 28, 2016

Separate Identity
From Work

The character Echo portraying a hostage negotiator in the TV series Dollhouse

Code isn't personal, people. You are not your code.
— Yitzchok Willroth (@coderabbi)
October 27, 2015

"Code is not a permanent representation of your intelligence." -@IrisClasson #scna
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei)
November 6, 2015

You are not your job. You are how you treat people.
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior)
April 7, 2014

Leave
Better Than You Find

Three main characters in the fax machine scene from the film Office Space

As a developer your job is to systematically reduce the number of facepalms per segment of read code.
— Jeff Carouth (@jcarouth)
November 11, 2015

Comic strip with the caption 'Code Quality Measurement: WTFs/Minute'

The best programmers I've ever met had an odd balance of an ability to cope with current tech and a fervent unwillingness to do so.
— Michael Fogus (@fogus)
June 11, 2015

Be a good community member. Say good things about people in public, not bad things. Let's empower each other and not bring each other down.
— Tessa Mero (@TessaMero)
November 16, 2015

Be Curious

The android B-4 as portrayed by actor Brent Spiner in the film Star Trek: Nemesis

"To be a good software engineer requires a commitment to life-long learning." - @ieatkillerbees #phptek
— Nomad PHP (@nomadphp)
May 26, 2016

I have been programming for 18 years and I still learn new things everyday. Reason I enjoy my work. Never. Stop. Learning.
— Jeremy Quinton (@jeremyquinton)
June 11, 2015

Follow your curiosity. Don't worry if it is not related to your work, integration of new ideas from distant spheres may yield new fruits.
— Carin Meier (@gigasquid)
September 11, 2015