My Software Development Cheat Code and What You Can Learn from It!
Photo by David Becker on Unsplash
Software developer hacks are hugely popular. If you can shave milliseconds off load times you’ll be some sort of hero at work.
I’ve developed a few great micro-wins that will help you become a better developer.
Those Micro-wins
JIRA Increments
Add a little on to each JIRA estimate and you’ll avoid your team having a sprint failure.
Round up every “this’ll take two days” estimate to a “safe” five days.
The Code Review Edge
Some say you can’t skimp in code reviews. I say otherwise. You catch a minor typo, draw full attention to it. It’s a subtle power play; if my changes get merged untested, that’s on the reviewer and I’m doing my work reviewing other pull requests. I’ve saved myself hours of unnecessary unit tests this way.
Typo Your Way to Financial Freedom
Take Uber pools split with coworkers. Someone pays the $34.62 fare. I “accidentally” transfer $34.02. They won’t Venmo request me for 60 cents — it’s beneath their dignity.
I’m a winner.
Lessons From My Agile Playground
In stand-ups, everyone overestimates. “Three weeks for integration testing,” someone says, knowing it’ll be done in three days. Everyone nods, complicit.
Developers know you’re gaming the system, but the hassle of calling you out exceeds the cost. And that’s the essence of survival in software development. The quiet accumulation of micro-wins, be it cents on Venmo or sprints won through stealthy overestimation.
Conclusion
The next time you’re splitting an Uber remember, the trick isn’t to get away without being caught. The trick is to get everyone else to believe your intention underneath your lies.
In software and life, it’s all about plausible deniability.