A software developer's experience life cycle:

0 - 5 years: attempt to replicate what your current senior is preaching, assuming that's the right way. Reading "Clean code" and preach it as gospel, even though you don't practice any of it.

6-12 years: gained the belief that you are better off coming up with solutions yourself, usually "sophisticated" and "elegant" which to everyone else (and also yourself a few years later) is an over-complicated inheritance ridden shit show. You have realised the "Clean code" movement is actually a cult but still believe code reuse is the holy grail.

13+ years: finally realized that simplicity and pragmatism is the most sensible way for most software development. Code is now readable, maintainable and functional. You took the few good bits from "Clean code" and ignored the extremism. These are the golden years.

The problem is most developers jump ship and stop developing before reaching the golden years, thus resulting in most software projects looking like shit.

Unpopular opinion, but it doesn't make it untrue.

Once again I have loads.

My best teachers were...

The contractor that taught me C#, ASP MVC and SQL Server. Dude was a legend, so calm and collected. He wanted to learn JQuery and Bootstrap so at the same time as teaching, he was learning from me. Such an inspirational person, to know your subordinates still have something to teach you. He also taught me a lot about working methodically and improving my pragmatism.

The other, in school I studied computing A-Level. 100% scored at least one of the exams... basically I knew my stuff.

But, as a kid, I didn’t know how to formulate my answers, or even string together coherent answers for the exams. This dude noticed, first thing he did was said “well you’re better at this bit than me, practice but you’ll be fine” (manually working out two’s complement binary of a number).

Second thing he did was say “you know what man, you know what you’re on about but nobody else is ever going to know that”.

He helped me on the subjects I wasn’t perfect on, then he helped me on formulating my answers correctly.

He also put up with my shit attendance, being a teenager with a motorcycle who thinks he knows it all, has its downsides.

As a result, I aced the hell out of that course, legendary grades and he got himself a bit of a bonus for it to use on his holiday. Everyone’s a winner.

Liam, Jason, if you guys are out there I owe you both thanks for making me the person I am today.

The worst, I’ve had too many to name... but it comes down to this:
- identify your students strengths and weaknesses, focus on the weaknesses
- identify your own and know when to ask for help yourself
- be patient, learning hurts.

You can always tell a passionate teacher from one who’s there for the paycheck.

my plan for perfect state:
- powered by nuclear energy
- metric system, 24-hour clock
- state-owned and built midrisers for public housing with regulated prices, privately owned and built luxury housing
- free healthcare, free generic drugs, option to pay for name-brand drugs. option to choose the gender of your urologist/gynecologist
- free public education, free kindergartens
- free centralized heating, Russia-style
- same-sex marriages are legal. legal documents for polyamorous partners, though not the same one as what you get when you get married. they grant some rights and don't grant other rights
- gender-neutral bathrooms in all state-owned buildings. privately owned places have the choice to make non-gender-neutral, separate bathrooms. bathrooms for wheelchair users are mandatory
- weed is legal, psychedelics are legal. you can grow, but there are limits
- possessing any drug in small (relative to the drug) quantities is not a criminal offense
- free HRT & voice coaching for trans people. But puberty blockers are illegal. gender-affirming surgery for children is criminal offense. let kids wait till they're able to consent
- Swiss-style gun laws
- no official religion, but the capital city has state-owned churches of all major religions. religious leaders are elected
- pragmatism, statistics, no ideological & demagogic bullshit
- extensive tram, metro & rail network
- bike and pedestrian-first roads
- multiple "city centers", all walkable
- scientology and other cults are banned
- no free parking on publicly owned land, option to pay for a parking lot for your car. All paid lots are equipped with fast charging for EVs
- no petrol cars in cities. no car restrictions in the countryside
- Barcelona-style superblocks
- all office workers have the right to work remotely and visit offices only if they want to
- free abortions
- mandatory vaccines for children, free vaccines for everyone
- free, state-owned bike "rental" network
- airbnb and other short-term rentals can't occupy more than 10% of the city center, companies that own airbnb places can't be incorporated overseas, they should be present locally
- Japenese-style "obsessed with fairness"-style local elections
- free shelters for the homeless, dedicated shelter network for domestic violence survivors of all genders
- refined sugar content in all food products (except for 100% refined sugar) is regulated and limited
- all vegan food items that are designed to replace meat-based items can't cost more than their meat counterparts
- four day, six hours per day work week. for people working in shifts, eight hours per shift max (you'll need three shifts to fill 24 hours)
- mandatory vacations, paid for by the company
- six months worth of salary if you're laid off, two months worth of salary if you quit on your own with two weeks notice
- autobahns with no speed limit
- no noise after 21:00
- ban underground and overhead crossings. people shouldn't climb to just cross the road
- Swiss privacy laws
- well-funded, well-equipped police force. all bodycam footage is public. turning bodycam off is grounds for termination. small task-force within police to fight corruption
- every citizen gets a free domain name of their choosing
- bike theft = car theft
- graffiti is not a criminal offense, but city cleanliness laws are Singapore-style (though not as harsh)
- all phones have user-replaceable batteries
- PRISM-type shit is illegal. all electronic devices sold here should be stripped of backdoors & surveillance
- completely ban hostile architecture
- government secret service should exist, but the number of people there should be limited
- ban exotic pets
- real, long sentences for pedos (pedos in the us are basically free, they barely get any time)

overall, I think there should be more separation between city and countryside laws. no one needs a Ford F-150 in my imaginary city, but some farmers do need it in my countryside!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

pragmatism increased by 78.695%; analysing the shit out of everything IT related

This one may be obvious but I thought I'd share it:

By default, Windows uploads analytical data of your machine to Microsoft via the Telemetry processes. These are quite the unnecessary and annoying resource hogs.

Well, you can turn that off by searching for Task Scheduler, looking for the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry tasks and disabling them. Some of them are called Application Experience and Compatibility. I'm sure you'll find it.

As a side note, you can reschedule all of those tasks as you see fit. Some of them are useful and necessary but some aren't, causing bloat. For the useful ones, you can reschedule them once a month or something and not every day.

Pragmatism advised.