“Overworking is the Black Plague of the 21st Century.”― Richie Norton

Developer burnout isn’t being acknowledged, there isn’t a plan and it will continue to be a problem until attitudes change. Burnout is a growing problem with developers that won’t solve itself. Companies need to acknowledge burnout and take steps to avoid it.

With most developers working remotely during covid, more developers are burning out than ever before. 83% of Developers Suffer From Burnout and 81% Said It’s Gotten Worse During Covid.

GP clinics are at breaking

I read an article about GP’s at breaking point and the government needs to put in a plan…

There is no magic formula or approach that will guarantee a successful project

Despite many articles proclaiming Agile is dead, it’s barely taken a glancing blow and rumours of the death of Agile have been greatly exaggerated.

You cannot kill a project methodology, there will always be Agile projects. Agile is like a religion, religions don’t die, they become less popular and fade away.

• Agile software development is dead. Deal with it
• Video — Agile is Dead • Pragmatic Dave Thomas • GOTO 2015
• The Death of Agile and Beyond

You cannot kill someone's belief and there will always be…

The shortcut in creating software is to create quality and create it once

The faster software development tries to go, the more mistakes and the lower the quality. Shortcuts lower quality and technical debt builds up and slows everything down.

Fast is slow because Software development is a loser’s game, you build momentum by reducing mistakes, bugs and errors. Software Development Is Misunderstood, Quality is fastest way to get code into production.

You don’t make up time creating software, it’s a marathon that is best suited to steady progress towards the finish line. …

Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything. John Kenneth Galbraith

More developers are suffering from burnout than ever, it’s increased during covid, is the cause meeting overload?

83% of Developers Suffer From Burnout and 81% Said It’s Gotten Worse During Covid. During covid I noticed my Outlook was full with meetings (as a solution architect) and developers were attending. Before I looked for the meetings, now I look for the spaces between meetings.

It got to the point that it was almost impossible to arrange a meeting with some people because everyday was full.

The developers I…

I read a good idea from Scott Adam's where he recommends we take the higher ground.

We don't discuss the details and point the finger, we take the issue up and Say

"Software development is difficult, these problems happen but we are going to work hard to get it working and create the functionality you need"

They can't complain about this because you are sharing the same goals, you are doing the actions they want but crucially you aren't getting stuck in the weeds of blame and details (which are most of the time irrelevant)

This is similar to Steve Jobs response to Iphone 4 and Attenna's not working.

Smart phones are difficult, problems happen like this but we just want to make are users happy.

On good days, development is like riding a unicorn over a rainbow. On bad days it’s like the unicorn refuses to take one step forward

Learning to become a developer can be brutal because you have to do it in public, you have to try and fail in front of managers, developers and paying customers.

This public learning is like facing a snarling dog, teeth gnashing, slobber everywhere. You cannot show fear or it bites. There is no hiding place from failing because learning is creating solutions, overcoming problems, and making mistakes.

Development throws its junior developers in the deep…

“A Programming Language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.” Ew Dijkstra

Abstraction is a difficult concept to understand, it takes time and experience to understand how to use it.

I used interfaces and abstract classes but it was only recently that I understood some of the benefits of abstraction with regards to code design. Understanding how abstractions work, helps you understand design patterns and see the benefits of good coding practices.

This understanding has come through reading (re-reading in some instances) various parts of the book mentioned below

• Code Complete 2
• Clean Code
• Head First…

If you are involved in software development, there is always someone out to get you.

Good developers know how to keep out of the inevitable blame that appears when creating software, you stick the blame on others, particularly those who have left. It’s not an accident developers who left get all the blame, it’s basic survival.

Developers will get blamed for creating the wrong software exactly how it was specified!, bugs, the project being late, being too technical, not being technical enough.

The key to surviving is not to be stuck with the blame when the music stops, the best…