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dev.to staff

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Good and Bad Dev Habits: From Perfectionism to Git Commit Messages

Every Tuesday at 9pm EDT, we host the #DevDiscuss Twitter chat. This week the community shared the habits that hold them back as software developers, as well as those that uplift them. These are some highlights of last night's awesome chat.

As professionals, most of us have reached some sort of equilibrium between good habits and bad ones. Our triumphs are a product of the former, our limitations a product of the latter.

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One of the evident themes was devs letting the perfect be the enemy of the good:

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Another was spreading one's attention too thin:

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And another was not focusing enough on good communication:

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More specifically, devs admit they don't write enough tests:

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And need to get better at git:

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But hey, we also do some things right! So we also asked about the positive:

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Lots of devs are proud of how careful and deliberate they can be when learning:

And despite the industry's reputation, many devs are good at not taking on too much work:

Don't forget to maintain a friendly demeanor at work!

And while some cited documentation as a weakness in the first question, plenty also noted it as a strength:

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Overall it was one of the most spirited discussions we've had, and one that has plenty of useful sub-conversations. If you need more inspiration, some of dev.to's most popular articles have been about building good habits:


So keep honing your best habits and try to limit some of your worst ones. And remember...none of us are perfect! ✌️

Top comments (2)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Thanks to everyone for a great chat last night!

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Yay, #devdiscuss roundup! Great way to catch up on it.