What should I spend money on to become a more effective software engineer?

4 points·gammadist··9 comments

- Subscription to GPT4. = super human code drafting

- High quality text to speech browser extension. = super human reading abilities

- gym membership

- healthy food that minimizes inflammation

- books relevant to your domain. Use text to speech to help plow through them. Use gpt4 to explore ideas (validate and research everything gpt4 claims).

There's no product you can buy that will make you a better software engineer other than time off from work so you can explore, learn, and develop according to your own interests.

Would “cultivate an interest or hobby to avoid burnout” be an accurate summary of your comment?

No, it would not. You avoid burnout by not having a full-time job in addition to whatever personal development you are pursuing.

Came here to say the same.

Money won't buy you skills, but it can afford you the time and space to put in the effort

The best way to upskill is to build while learning. Merely consuming information will not typically help.

A copy of Sublime Text 4[0]?

Some coding/compsci books[1]?

[0] https://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-4

[1] https://www.oreilly.com/products/books-videos.html

A better outfit. You won't be "more effective", but you will be "perceived" as such.

I agree with this; most of the folks I work with spend a lot (to me) on clothes. Once I started buying more fashionable clothes I noticed I felt more like part of the group. Even though nobody changed their behavior to me, it definitely boosted my feeling of acceptance at work.

sleep

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