Email

The Pragmatic Programmer is one of the most influential books that I have read as a software developer. It is right up there with Software Craftsmanship and Clean Code. Andy Hunt recently gave an interview that was peppered with several poignent quotes that struck a chord with me.

You need to understand how to work with other people, both with teammates and with those pesky users

This is the single piece of advice that I’d give to anyone looking to get into software development. A team that works well together can accomplish anything even if it is only staffed with “intermediate” developers. In contrast, I’ve seen teams stacked with “rock stars” that have failed to produce anything meaningful due to poor team dynamics and toxic attitudes.

Your email address identifies you in this online world. Companies use it to verify who you are, to communicate with you and for resetting passwords. You may also use the same email address to correspond with your friends and family, and it may even be linked to your calendar too.

It makes sense to separate your personal email from your work email - you don’t send personal emails from your work address, nor do you send work emails from your personal address. In all likelihood you use a free service like Gmail, Hotmail, AOL or Yahoo for your personal email.