DEV Community

Discussion on: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I don't think they're entirely out of date for all developers, but I agree with Sarah's assessment for juniors. I specifically instruct juniors not to bother with that material early on in their career, but highly recommend it to folks who are a little further along—as great reference material, with some parts worth ignoring.

It's not that the advice and techniques are all out of date, but for juniors it could be hard to separate the dated from non-dated. It makes sense that an older book which covers a lot of ground would not stand up entirely over time.

I'm not speaking for Sarah's reasoning, but this is my answer for your question!

Thread Thread
 
laurencebarry profile image
laurencebarry

So it's okay for junior devs to write bad code early in their careers?! What a bizarre attitude

Thread Thread
 
webreaper profile image
Mark Otway

It's okay for everyone to write bad code sometimes. Not everything has to be perfectly structured and totally optimised. 'Tactical' can be good sometimes, and technical debt isn't always evil - as long as you aren't blind to it and have a plan to get rid of it or pay down the debt. Pragmatism is a key element of remaining commercial.