How do you improve your designer skills as the most senior person on the team?

2 points by showsover 3y ago ↗ HN

I'm in a situation many probably recognize in that the existing codebase has quite a few areas where it can be improved (lack of testing, overly complex architecture, a hard-on for static classes and methods everywhere, no monitoring).

Unfortunately I see myself as a rather average developer on a code-level and would like to improve my programming and designing skills. I've read the book A Philosophy of Software Design and enjoyed it thoroughly but so far it's the only resource that I found that touches on this specific area of software development.

I use Youtube channels like Nick Chapsas (recommendations welcome) to stay aware of new developments in the C# world and inspiration of replacing bulky implementations with cleaner ones.

What other tools or resources can I use to autonomously improve my designing skills in order to make maintainable software?

1 comment

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devdude1337 3y ago ↗

There are no tools that improve your skills. To become a better developer you have to apply new ideas and concepts on real projects. Try new programming languages (I assume you use .Net so why not write some tests for your current project using F#). Implement decoupling strategies like Message bus or Events, etc. Learn about other fields of software like parsers and compilers, AI, hardware, and so on. Learn from the old masters: Martin Fowler, Rober C. Martin, Alan Kay, Alan Turin, Niklaus Wirth…

It’s also very important to apply new concepts in real projects that give you immediate feedback to fully understand them.