I am sometimes asked if I have any words of advice for young people. Well, here are a few simple admonitions.
It's easier to solve problems if you don't panic. But panic may be a mandatory team activity.
There's more than one way to skin a cat. The way you choose determines whether you end up with a clean pelt or a tattered bloody mess.*
The difference between retrospective and second-guessing is that the former tries to reconcile benefits and consequences, while the latter says “this time we'll get it right.”
Experience doesn't make you smarter than anyone else. But once you've seen and made enough mistakes it sometimes seems that way. Unless you didn't learn from them.
Occam's razor is your most important tool. But if you're careless it will cut you.
Unit testing with mock objects lets you verify that your incorrect assumptions are internally consistent.**
Startups are a lot of fun, but eventually they'll burn you out. Join one for the challenge and excitement, not the stock options. You'll be long gone before they become worthless.
By all means spend some time in management. You might like it. You might even be good at it. But always remember: the role of a manager is to satisfy infinite desires with limited resources. And there's only a little stigma to saying “I don't like this” and returning to the front lines.
Everybody has a brand; it's the sum of everything that everybody else perceives about them. The secret to personal and professional success is to understand your brand, actively change what you don't like, and think carefully before changing what you do.
If you interview at a company that refers to people as “resources,” get up and leave. It doesn't matter if the person interviewing you is a nice person, or that your potential manager says the right things. Upper management doesn't value you, and won't think twice about replacing you with someone cheaper.
The world is not divisible into two groups of people, but three: thinkers, non-thinkers, and dogmatic non-thinkers. Non-thinkers will turn into thinkers if they value the outcome. Dogmatic non-thinkers won't, and will hate you for trying to enlighten them.
Whatever you call them, fools are unavoidable. The important thing is to avoid becoming one yourself.
* Stolen from Mike Boldi
** Stolen from Drew Sudell
