Notes to my younger self
summary
First ten years average one role per year then ten years in one place; advice focuses on concrete practices not pep talk. Build a tiny personal project, track work on a physical sticky-note board, and document decisions with an RFC / root cause analysis before refactoring. When rescuing legacy apps measure effect — a rewrite cut a page load from two minutes to about one second but failed on client hardware so test on client devices. Use a separate Zoom machine for always-on collaboration, celebrate small milestones, and prioritize being genuinely interested in teammates.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:32Early career lessons
- 4:03Chaotic workplace exit
- 6:30Supporting juniors
- 8:16Refactoring and feedback
- 10:24Side projects expertise
- 11:28Team culture milestones
- 13:10Kindness in reviews
- 14:53Large corps and remote work
- 17:42Non-coding activities
- 19:46The power of being interested in others
- 21:10Closing remarks
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