Which Path To Follow?

10 commentsWritten on January 20th, 2009 by
Categories: Opinions

Being a .NET developer isn't easy. Being a .NET developer who wants to get better all the time is even harder. Where do we go for guidance? Where do we go to get that valuable knowledge that will help us improve our skills and help us serve our customers/employers better?

A lot of .NET developers expect this kind of guidance from Microsoft, particularly from groups like Patterns & Practices. In the past, i honestly think they did a pretty lousy job at that. In the last year however, i think we've seen some positive signs that things are improving, although rather slowly.

There's also an ever increasing group of .NET developers who look to the ALT.NET community for guidance. There are a lot of talented, motivated and passionate developers in this community and there certainly is a whole lot of valuable knowledge to be found there. However, in the last couple of weeks especially, it seems like this community is ruled by the Holy Trinity Of Continuous Bitching. Well, the mailing list especially. At times it feels embarrassing to even be subscribed to it, although there still is the occasional nugget of interesting information to be found. At least, if you don't mind going through all of the high-school drama to get to that valuable information.

So who should we, the regular nobodies who happen to develop software for a living look up to for advice and guidance? Should we just listen to what Microsoft recommends? Hmm, no. Should we blindly follow the supposed ALT.NET leaders? Please don't.

Here's what i recommend: try to learn from the people who actually make sense to you. It doesn't matter who they work for, what they have done in the past, what they are working on right now, or even how unknown they are. If it makes sense, it makes sense. If it helps you improve your current way of working, it's a step up already. It really doesn't matter if what you're doing is 'right' according to the 'big shots'. Do what works for you. Do what helps you improve what you're doing. Don't resort to blindly following anyone.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 00:54 and is filed under Opinions. You can subscribe to any comments to this entry via RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://benpittoors.wordpress.com den Ben

    Although you really should try to stick to some principles. And imo it looks like the ALT.NET coders (i.e. people that don’t just use alternative technologies, but actually write them… like erh.. you for example :) ) tend to stick to these principles more passionately then the ones on any other ‘path’.

  • Ian Chamberlain

    This is some of the best advice any developer can receive. Listen to everyone, but make up your own mind and do what is right for you and your situation. Nobody knows it all and there is always something new to learn.

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  • http://elegantcode.com Jan Van Ryswyck

    I’m learning a lot from the folks I follow on Twitter lately. It seems that the usefull discussions on the ALT.NET user group has partly shifted to Twitter. As an example, there were some great DDD discussions going on yesterday. I know that Twitter is far from ideal, but I personally get a lot of value from following the right people.

    • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

      Jan,

      i’ve checked some of them out on Twitter… i kinda see the same behavior and attitude there :)

  • http://www.jphamilton.net J.P. Hamilton

    Where do we go indeed? Honestly, I am hoping I will come to places like this blog. And hopefully, sometimes people will come to mine. I think we have to mentor each other. I truly believe that I am responsible for creating the community I want to be apart of. It won’t happen by itself. The alt.net list has been stale for awhile. Twitter seems to have some stuff going on, but the format is less than ideal. I am always looking for my mentors. Someone that I consider to be one of mine has been programming about 1/3 as long as me. I’m not too proud for that. Good is good.

  • http://davybrion.com Davy Brion

    J.P.,

    thanks :)
    and i’ve been reading your blog for a while too ;)

  • http://weblogs.asp.net/rashid Kazi Manzur Rashid

    Well said.

  • http://blechie.com/wtilton Willie

    Where do we go?

    I particularly go to blogs myself to get most of the bleeding edge information. I typically consume it and then apply it in my own style that works best for what I’m doing.

    I’d say, remove yourself from whatever crap is annoying and focus on going to blogs or other sources that promote a more forward positive thinking of doing things.

    Trying to get better though, that’s gotta come from within. You have to really want to learn a new tech and then just dive in. Typically you’ll have learned something new from the experience.

  • http://zoldello.wordpress.com Phil

    I prefer to adapt ideas that meets my needs (from Microsoft, co-workers, my own experimentation, blogs, podcast..wherever). For example, Robert Martin SOLID principles partially meet my needs so I use a form of it in my code.

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