rburgosnavas

This is a great article and I absolutely agree with the message. I'm learning Java and I use Eclipse as my IDE of choice. The main advantage of using it is how easy it is to access JavaDocs for class, methods, and what not, but I've made a conscious effort not to rely on 'auto-complete' features if I'm implementing something I've never used before. But it is tempting to just use that for everything.

True, that was an exaggeration. As adults, we should know, are least have enough common sense, about what is acceptable behavior, at least, but hopefully exclusively, in a professional setting.

This is one way of enforcing these standards. Think of them as "interfaces" that everyone is exposed to and encourage to implement. It's up to you to go along with them or not, but for the benefit, sake, and sanity of your team members, it is recommended that you stick to them. If one doesn't and things start to get buggy or not compatible, then other would ask you why you didn't follow the implementation.

It is unfortunately that something like this has to be implemented because it is common sense, but if PyCon or any other organization has to be policing their attendees like children until the learn, then so be it.

Great stuff, thanks!

The New Boston series on YouTube is also a good place to start http://thenewboston.org.

Awesome, I had to look up what you meant by 'shipping'. Thanks for that. This is a pretty interesting article on that subject http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/09/23.html

That's great and encouraging story. Thanks for that. I see that in the end you sell yourself honestly as someone who lives and breathes hers or his field and that learning is an obsession, then you have an advantage.

Ah, "MVP", a new term to add to my repertoire, haha. Your advice is very valuable sir, thank you.

I'm well aware of the concept of sitting down with a piece of paper and a pen and trying to come up with ideas for projects. Unfortunately I'm struggling with the right balance of "reading to learn" and "doing to learn". I know that doing things, implementing ideas, etc., is probably the most productive and beneficial thing I can do for myself, but I get into this "I most read about this and that" loop that is not efficient.

The little amount of time I've spent trying to come up with projects have been unsuccessful but only because I do not spend considerable amount of time brainstorming. Your advice on how to approach this is excellent. As I wrote in my updated YC profile, I think we need more music apps for Android, but real music apps, not toys, so this is something I should put my attention on.

The "culture fit" is definitely an aspect that I consider intimidating, and yes, I live in the Bay Area. I know it shouldn't be intimidating in my case because I think I'm good at accommodating myself to an environment pretty well.

That's a good point. If one is passionate about what they do and considers it innate, then I guess the only way to stop progress is by making a conscious decision to quit, or by an unfortunate event.

Thanks for the tip about updating my profile. Sure, I would be interested in freelance. Like a lot of people have mentioned, it would be a great opportunity to get the exposure and knowledge I need.

I currently work for a non-profit as a "database administrator" which actually translates to MS Access manager, and I do other things like update their website, edit, write, etc. I've been able to use a lot of the skills I learned from my MySQL classes with Access, and web development from doings lots of Google searches about PHP, CSS, etc.

Wow! I am amazed by the overwhelming response. Thank you guys!