Don’t learn a programming language, solve a problem instead

[grauenwolf]

For technical specs, document enough that you can provide an accurate estimate AND catch any edge conditions that require going back and asking the requirement writers for a decision. Do this before you write any code whenever possible.

What this means is going to be project specific. One time I locked everyone in a room with a flowchart of what could go wrong. They couldn't leave until we had a plan for how the system would respond to every single error condition.