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Code Man Ben 👨‍💻
Code Man Ben 👨‍💻

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3 Lockdown Lessons Learned

Lockdown has been many things, but to me it has been an ample opportunity to learn. Due to the nature of the job software engineers have, we have to learn new things constantly - new frameworks, APIs, best practices and so on. Sometimes, however, the most important things that anyone can learn are about themselves. So without further ado, these are the 3 things that I learned during lockdown:

  1. Peace and Quiet:

I love the buzz of the office. Getting to interact with some of my favourite people on a work-daily basis is pretty great. Feeling other people's enthusiasm fuels my enthusiasm, in a sort of self-fulfilling circle of enthusiasm. However, what spending my work day physically at home has made me learn is that sometimes I like the peace and quiet, and that actually I do my best thinking 🤔 💭 in a calm environment.

  1. The Tools You Use:

This lesson is short and sweet. A poor workman blames his tools 🛠, but a superb workman makes better tools. Developing side projects to help improve my productivity has been really beneficial and much easier now that I can use the time that I would have spent commuting.

  1. Help Yourself:

Not as in everything is free, but more as in sometimes you learn the most by not asking for help. I was very reluctant to ask for help a while ago, but thanks to the friendly relationships between colleagues I have found it easy to ask - which is great. Now that people aren't just a shout across a room away, and I have to think about contacting people, I am becoming more deliberate about when I ask and offer help. Due to this, I have learned the importance of just sticking with it for a little bit longer than usual can often lead to the solution to that pesky bug 🐜! A tip here is to hold off asking for help for an extra five minutes after you first think of asking for help.

But enough about me. What have you learned during lockdown? Let me know in the comments below ⬇️

Talk soon

  • B 👋

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