What’s the best advice you have for a new software engineer during their first year on the job? Mistakes to avoid, habits to adopt, books to read, podcasts to listen to, educational resources to consult, etc. etc.?
@joshuapsteele there's really only one and it is at the core of all the best engineers I know: internalize deeply that computers and software can be understood, and therefore that you should never give up on understanding.
Mind: a given idea might take years to understand, a given bug might not the worth spending the time to get all the way down to the root of, and so on. But you can. And you should as a rule err on understanding over not.
@joshuapsteele if there is documentation for what you’re working with, read that before you head over to stackoverflow.
@joshuapsteele +1 to what everyone else has said. For me, one of the most critical things I've learned (and am still learning) is knowing when you're spinning your wheels on a problem. Time-box how much time you'll dedicate to figuring something out for yourself, and if you're stuck ruminating on the same problem once that time has ended, ask for help. Julia Evans's blog posts on learning are also very helpful tactical guides for asking for help.
