The Tips

Tip 1

The skill is not knowing what to type. It is knowing how to begin when you do not yet know what to type.

The Blank Terminal

Tip 2

Worry about the things that smart people worry about.

Foundation

Tip 3

The code is not the job. The job is solving the problem.

The Profession

Tip 4

The tool you stop noticing is the one you have mastered.

You Fight the Way You Train

Tip 5

You fight the way you train. Cut corners in training, pay it back in battle.

You Fight the Way You Train

Tip 6

When in doubt, make the body plan drawable.

The Body Plan

Tip 7

An object without a refusal list is not designed yet; it is merely named.

The Body Plan

Tip 8

"What does done look like?" gets you 80% of the way there.

Levels of Work

Tip 9

Work flows down. Learnings flow up.

Levels of Work

Tip 10

P-Cubed is a mnemonic, not a methodology.

P-Cubed

Tip 11

A phase you cannot exit is a mood.

P-Cubed

Tip 12

Architecture is not finding the right answer. It is choosing the tradeoffs you can live with.

Architecture vs Design

Tip 13

Plan in proportion to the cost of being wrong, not to your ability to imagine the future.

Architecture vs Design

Tip 14

Duplication beats the wrong abstraction.

Writing Code

Tip 15

A new pattern creates a migration obligation.

Writing Code

Tip 16

If you can't operate it, you didn't really ship it.

Operability

Tip 17

If everything alerts, nothing alerts.

Operability

Tip 18

If you can't reproduce it, you can't fix it with confidence.

Debugging

Tip 19

One change at a time. Test after each change.

Debugging

Tip 20

An incident is containment. You don't refactor a snake; you contain it.

Incidents

Tip 21

When in doubt, choose the fastest reversible mitigation.

Incidents

Tip 22

Whether a system stays organized is decided by the cost of putting things back.

Technical Debt

Tip 23

A good stopping point makes starting again cheap.

Technical Debt

Tip 25

Write down the decision while you still remember what alternatives were alive.

Build for what you need to know

Tip 26

Expertise compresses knowledge. Teaching decompresses it without distorting it.

Teaching

Tip 27

The word "just" is often where the missing curriculum begins.

Teaching

Tip 28

Define success in the containing system before optimizing the subsystem.

Norma's car must fit

Tip 29

Readiness is derived, not declared.

Readiness is derived, not declared

Tip 30

Partial failure produces partial truth. The truth is the asset recovery needs.

Hold the plate

Tip 31

A coherent slice is the smallest complete thought you can safely integrate.

Ship a complete thought

Tip 32

Finished means ready to run again.

Finished means ready to run again