Comments on: The number one trait a successful developer needs.

By: Coding Horror

Coding Horror — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:17:27 +0000

Discipline Makes Strong Developers…

Scott Koon recently wrote about the importance of discipline as a developer trait: Every month a new programming language or methodology appears, followed by devotees singing its praises from every corner of the Internet. All promising increases in pr…

By: Discipline Makes Strong Developers - Programming

Discipline Makes Strong Developers - Programming — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:09:08 +0000

[...] Koon recently wrote about the importance of discipline as a developer [...]

By: In the search for discipline « Tarvainen

In the search for discipline « Tarvainen — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:05:38 +0000

[...] development is an art of discipline too. As Scott Koon put it: Every month a new programming language or methodology appears, followed by devotees singing [...]

By: Discipline Makes Strong Developers

Discipline Makes Strong Developers — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:52:10 +0000

[...] Koon recently wrote about the importance of discipline as a developer trait: Every month a new programming language or methodology appears, followed by [...]

By: Scott L

Scott L — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 08:58:38 +0000

I disagree with this. Software development is a social activity.
People have different personalities, and they bring different
strengths and weaknesses with them. To pick “disciplined” as
the best is narrowminded.

http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/The-Cool-Cam.aspx
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2005/02/20/organics_and_mechanics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs

By: Jwalant Natvarlal Soneji

Jwalant Natvarlal Soneji — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:54:22 +0000

Well thats true, I have seen some of them and some have got on site opportunities also.
Discipline means for me is to stick with some particular coding pattern and also to stick with ideologies related to coding.
I like innovations but they have to proove their importance in the project or future prospects.
But, I also seems to have many internet activities with me. And so feel inside doing wrong in my office hours.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:28:16 +0000

Holy Crap JonR, it’s like you *know* me.

By: JonR

JonR — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:01:30 +0000

nah, the worst developer is inexperienced, undisciplined, spends all day on IM / forums / side projects, throws regular tantrums, never hits a deadline, always has an excuse, and likes to blog about how stupid all his colleagues are.

oh, and he changes jobs alarmingly regularly.

By: Martin Vilcans

Martin Vilcans — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:25:37 +0000

True. Too many developers, especially inexperienced ones, seem to think that being clever is more important than being disciplined. I guess the best is to combine discipline with cleverness and the right kind of laziness. The worst developer is undisciplined and stupid and works very hard.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:34:19 +0000

@Nate Kohari – Exactly. In my career, I’ve known when to hold off on development and wait for certain PMs to change their mind. I’ve stopped writing DAL’s almost altogether. I use NHibernate/SubSonic/ActiveRecord depending on the project. I no longer write image swapping code or cross-browser form accessors in JavaScript, I use a library. If it weren’t for lazy developers, we’d still be hoping that a stray breeze doesn’t blow our stack of punchcards off the table and out of order.

So one example of where a lack of discipline can cause problems is when naming database columns. We have a column called “list_id” which is a PK on a table. Sometimes, in related tables the FK column is named “ListId”, sometimes it is called “list id”, and in the UI code, the label for the textbox that holds the value is called “List Value” (we have a different column in the same table called “List_Value”). A little discipline when naming the columns would have gone a long ways towards maintainability and being able to understand the code quickly.

Proper discipline can cover up a lot of flaws in a poor methodology, but the inverse isn’t true.