One of the side effects of becoming a better developer is increasing productivity and quality. You literally get more value from time spent on a task. These improvements can come through skills or through using tools. That is the focus of this episode. Part of becoming a better developer is adding to the list of tools available for a task.
One Trick Ponies
Unfortunately, there are developers that master a tool or two and never advance from them. While they are very productive with what they know, there are advances in tools that will pass them by. An extreme example is the development languages themselves. Think about how hard it would be to create a modern application in machine language. Even the greatest master of writing assembly code will be far less productive than a C# or JavaScript developer.
Technology is moving forward at a rapid pace. That translates to the tools we use. Therefore, we need to spend time scouting out new tools and learning them on a regular basis. Our programming skills will fade if we do not use them. Likewise, our productivity will fall behind the competition if we do not stay current with the tools available. You can see this in the industry with developers that are a few decades into their career but are still doing the same work they did when they started.
Changing Standards
I find that the way tools conform to best practices is highly underrated. When you stay current with the tools you use it helps keep your development in line with the latest trends and concerns. One example is the use of a cloud platform for your server. Most of the Cloud providers start out a new instance with security built in. They sometimes even prevent you from making your server less than secure. These vendors use best practices and the latest tools to provide you a safe server out of the box. It may be a minimum standard, but at least it is better than nothing and saves you some work.
Increasing Productivity And Quality
All of these little improvements to your development process add up. They will save you time and improve quality by helping you avoid “beginner” mistakes and typos. You will even find yourself falling into line with the latest best practices in conforming to the way tools guide you to perform tasks. As you grow in your career, do not forget to add tools to your toolbox along with all of those cool languages and frameworks.
Learn more in the book written for Develpreneurs at any stage in their progress: https://www.amazon.com/Source-Code-Happiness-Finding-Success-ebook/dp/B07MKZBF6R
