10 general dev tips for building things.

I’ve built a lot of things over my 30 or so years in “tech”.

And while it’s true that the tech is always changing — that we are constantly going through cycles & evolutions. There are also a lot of things about the software dev. process that I’ve found don’t really change that much over time.

So here’s a list of 10 of those high level, general, and basic software dev. tips that I think were true 30+ years ago and are still true & useful in building today’s software:

1. Minimize the number of database calls you make.

2. The fewer choices the user has to make at once is almost always the way to go.

3. Move as much non-critical processing as possible to the clients machine (ie. javascript).

4. Move your critical processing to your server.

5. Backup your critical data on a regular basis (and test that your backups work).

6. Limit the number of images you have on any given page.

7. Design for your core user and spend less time worrying about edge cases.

8. Keep learning new ways to do things - and apply what you learn as much as possible.

9. It's better to make a mistake, and then fix it, than do nothing at all.

10. Don't be afraid to throw things away and start over, but have data to back up your decision.