sylar
So there is this character (antagonist) in this TV series “Heroes”, and his name is Sylar

People might also know him from the new Star Trek movie, where he plays the young Spock. Anyways, back to the Sylar character, in the show he plays a serial killer who kills people with ability (e.g flying, shooting fire out of hands, invisible, shape shifter etc etc) and takes on their ability/power after killing them.

That sounds awful as a character but some may say that does sound pretty cool, if you could take like Beethoven ability to play the piano or Jimi Hendrix guitar playing ability. So what does this have to do with software development you may ask?

The ability that I speak of could very well be from one of your fellow developer. S/he may have some ability/knowledge in software programming that you may not have learned yet. If you wish to take the ability try and set up some time with them so that you can learn from them. Try pair programming with them or have them show you some stuff, the next time you are near their cubicle or office. There is a lot you can learn from others, you can watch them use their IDE or Resharper short cut keys, or just their design principles they may use in their application development. Trust me most developer’s don’t mind showing off to their coworker its part of their job to act smart 🙂

I think the quote from a TED talk by John Wooden a basketball coach sums up my entry pretty well:

“Never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best, since that is under your control”