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Discussion on: What would you like people to know about programming?

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Matt Hernandez

I'm only sometimes a programmer and I'd say, be aware of business needs and team needs. Being quick to do exactly what's assigned (and not do whats not assigned) makes you quite a ...commodity. To be stacked in the corner with the printer and some books. IMO to be valuable you must be thoughtful about approaches ("can I understand the business use of this..it feels like a fragile thing you're asking for.."), and respectful of team members (..remind the boss that he's asking you to invade a code space that another dev is working without consulting that person, and you're not comfortable with that). If you're not thoughtful enough but just a coding machine, in the end other (good) team members will distrust you and you'll be pretty lonely at work, others either moved on or considering you a liability--and that includes the perplexed boss who likes how fast you produce but hates how he always needs to make someone do it over again.