Category: self-improvement

The Role of Critical Thinking in Software Development

Introduction

Software development and innovation is moving faster than ever before, but there is a skill that developers, architects, and coders need adopt to stay competitive. This skill is Critical Thinking. In this article, we will confidently explore its importance and practical applications. The Critical Thinking skill will help you be a better developer, coder, problem solver, and valuable team member. Innovation should become more naturally when Critical Thinking is practiced and less gaps should be filled in the final product.

Let’s dig into it…

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Podcasts I Follow

These are the Podcasts I follow and listen to most often. They range from business, design and general interests. They are not ranked in an particular order, but my favourite is James Altucher and Jordan Harbinger. I would challenge everyone to listen to one or both of these regularly. Continue reading Podcasts I Follow

7 Soft Skills That Senior Developers Should Have

Developers often ask what they need to do to make it to the level of a senior developer. They can gain all the programming skills in all the popular and new software frameworks, but they will not be anything more than just a developer. A Senior Developer needs to have some fundamental soft skills.

What are soft skills?
Soft skills are how you interact with people, tasks and projects where hard skills are the skills we learn at college, online tutorials or books ( “HOW TO DO” skills ). Soft skills are tough to achieve and are often part of a persons natural tendencies. Soft skills like hard skills can be learned, but not easily. Soft skills can get better through practice and time just like hard skills. An example of hard skills is carpentry. An example of soft sills is a skill that is transferable to any job like being a team player.
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A Quest to Learn AngularJS

I recently got excited about AngularJS.  I took a pretty good course through CodeSchool for which you can find a link off of the AngularJS home page.  Since then I had been playing with and scouting out AngularJS ideas that I can build something with worth while.  There is no better way to learn than by doing.  Then I thought; what about the weather?  I had already built a real basic weather page using ASP.NET and C#, I wonder how hard it would be to build an AngularJS example.  I did not know how to connect AngularJS to a web service though.  Google has everything! So I looked for an example of AngularJS and OpenWeatherMap for which I had found.  It did not take long to find my solution.

My Original Weather Page: http://www.ldndeveloper.com/weather.aspx

My Angular Weather: http://www.ldndeveloper.com/angular/weather.aspx
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Achieving Order in Chaos

Trying to streamline things at work and make it so we are producing higher quality code I have learned a few things. Mind you I have only been in my new position for a few weeks, but already I along with our Account Manager have discovered some long lingering holes that need to be plugged. Nothing major, but nevertheless, we need to fill the holes. Some of the uncovered issues are: communication, processes and specifications for developers. It is not enough to get the projects done, but we need to do it right and right on spec.

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Enhance Your Technology Career By Learning To Speak

Have you ever had a customer, co-worker or manager look at you as if you had two heads? When an IT Professional, speaks it is very important that who we speak to understands what we are saying. You cannot sell an idea, explain an issue or develop a project plan if you who you are speaking to does not understand. The use of jargon is the biggest obstacle that IT Professionals face. Continue reading Enhance Your Technology Career By Learning To Speak

Keeping a Cool Head

Recent events at work caused 3 days of fire fighting to keep systems going. It was a lot of work and was not easy. Stress levels were at an all-time high. While showing the rest of the staff that I was dedicated to fixing the issues, I managed to keep a cool head and work systematically. It’s not easy to keep a cool head, but a lot more problems can occur if you do not. We had one incident when I was in a meeting, a mistake was made that cost me a loss of 2 hours and it could have been prevented by pausing for a second. Continue reading Keeping a Cool Head

Getting Out Of My Comfort Zone

I have often lived in my own little bubble as most technology-geek-type people do.  I hardly stepped out, stretched myself and joined the world outside.  In the last little while I have had the opportunity to expand my world and I took it.  I was asked to attend a networking function with a friend.  I had probably met a half dozen professionals from various disciplines.  Again this week an opportunity arose where by offering to help pay for a website renewal, I had the opportunity to hide in my bubble and pay with PayPal or go hand deliver the money and meet someone new;  I chose to meet someone new. Continue reading Getting Out Of My Comfort Zone

What I Have Learned

I graduated college in 1996.   This was a great year for me.  I moved home where I was fed and loved by my family.  I worked for a small software company doing Visual Cobol who went bust.  I was a hard worker and never said no to an opportunity.  When the company went bust, I worked at a local concrete factory until I got into a factory automation job.   Now I am where I am and boy did I learn a lot.  Some of what I learned is from making mistakes and some I learned by mentors and leaders in my life. Continue reading What I Have Learned