I’ve been working with software engineers for a long time.  The best are all united in one common attribute: pride.

Not pride in the sense of the deadly sin, no, I mean the good kind.  The kind that makes them make that extra effort to ensure their product works right, or their website stays up, or their system isn’t going to need constant care and feeding.

Most of these folks (and I say folks as this certainly isn’t males only crowd…) would be utterly chagrined if I called them out here, so I won’t.  What I will do is call on everyone else to try to be more like the best.  Show the pride in your work!

Some things to do:

• Don’t leave your problems for other people to sort out later.
• If you see something broken, even if it isn’t yours, perhaps you ought to consider fixing it.  Or starting the ball rolling towards a resolution…
• Don’t stand for lousy architecture, esp. just because “we don’t have the time to fix it.”  We all know you’ll spend more time in the long term maintaining junk.
• Lead by example – show the other team members the way to success, esp. the junior members.  At the very least it’s less time you’ll spend in the long term fixing problems they make, but more over, it’s your duty.  Someone at sometime helped you…now it’s your turn.  Make someone else better!

Further, the general suggestion works well throughout your life.  You’ll find yourself much happier when you are proud and help the people around you.  Trust me on this…