The Best Programmer I Know • Daniel Terhorst-North • GOTO 2024

Focus on getting the job done rather than writing perfect code - code is a means to an end, not the end itself

Make changes easy by building maintainable, decomposable code rather than trying to solve everything at once

Care about others - help teammates, mentor, share knowledge, and build psychological safety within teams

Stay current and keep learning - try new technologies, languages and tools to expand your thinking

Write code that fits the current situation/team/product rather than overengineering for hypothetical future needs

Take care of yourself - maintain work-life balance, have interests outside programming, go home on time

Study the domain and users - understand the real problems you’re solving rather than just implementing features

Practice “solve for now” - iterate and improve rather than trying to build the perfect solution upfront

Be kind to yourself and others - everyone makes mistakes and is learning

Focus on making products that create positive impact for users rather than pursuing technical perfection

Build small, replaceable components with clear interfaces rather than monolithic systems

Be skeptical of absolute truths in programming - context and needs change over time

Code outlives teams, data outlives code - optimize for changeability and maintainability

Technical skills matter but “people skills” like collaboration and mentoring are equally important hard skills

Find joy in helping others and building things that make people’s lives better