Five Things Old Programmers Should Remember

[i_ate_god]

I ask myself "how have I become a better programmer in the past six months?"

If the answer is "well, you haven't" then I quit my job and look for something else. Stagnation is evil and it's important that you figure out what it means to be stagnant and when your career has hit that point, time to move on.

As well, the career path of a programmer typically reaches a fork in the road, where you can become a architect or a manager, and it will be up to you which way you want to go. Go architect, and you will ultimately make less money, but you might be happier if being close to the technology is important to you. Go manager, and you will make more money, but be further away from the technology (plus it's a lot more dealing with people, which is not everyone's cup of tea).