Embrace the Grind

‘Embrace the grind’ is one of the best pieces of advice you can give to early-career software developers.

Successful developers are rarely the ones who know every architecture or design pattern, every last detail of a programming language, or every JavaScript framework currently en vogue. Great developers work through complex problems that require several iterations to solve. They go spelunking into complex code they didn’t write to understand the root of a nasty bug or spend days breaking down a significant feature into small deliverables so that each stage adds value. It requires grit and determination. Earlier in my career, this looked like magic, but it got easier over the years; it’s a skill you develop.