All I Need To Know To Be A Better Programmer I Learned In Kindergarten

Programming is complicated stuff, but a lot of what makes a good programmer isn't all that different from the earliest learning we did in school. 1. Share everything: Use open source where possible, and contribute to it when you are able. The collective wisdom of the entire community is better than the limited vision of a few large companies....

1. Share everything.

2. Play fair.

3. Don't hit people.

4. Clean up your own mess.

5. Don't take things that aren't yours.

6. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

7. Wash your hands before you eat.

8. Flush.

9. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

10. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

11. Take a nap every afternoon.

12. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

13. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

14. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

15. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

You won't learn anything at all if you don't try. Everything I learned in programming came from trying new stuff and generally playing around. Every morning I read a lot of sites to see what is happening in the programming world; I have been doing this since my first job.

See, programming is easy when you look at it through 5-year-old eyes.

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