I liked this book. It went over the common areas that a software engineer needs to deal with. Short, scannable chapters and a good overview made this to an enjoyable read.
#Things to consider
- Changing large existing codebases is a skill refined over years—decades, even.
- Healthy teams use practices such as project retrospectives to discover inadvertent debt and discuss when and whether to pay it down.
- Spend a portion of each week reading. There are many different sources: team documentation, design documents, code, ticket backlogs, books, papers, and technical sites.
- Messy code is a natural side effect of change; don’t blame developers for the untidiness. This drift toward disarray is known as software entropy.
- Applying the same philosophy to code—leave code cleaner than you found it—will help your code get better over time.
- Protect your system by programming defensively with safe and resilient coding practices.
- You want your code to be unsurprising, not clever.
- To keep configuration changes safe, configuration should be version controlled, reviewed, tested, built, and published.
- Try to find the answer yourself. Even if your colleagues know the answer, put in the effort—you’ll learn more. If you don’t find the answer, your research will still be your starting point when you ask for help.