by Michael Anderson of Cloud3000

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." — Leonardo da Vinci

1. Guard your backups like your life depends on it, because your work does.
2. Always have a recovery plan, and keep sharpening your skills to execute it.
3. Hardware failure and data loss are your problem, never to be noticed by the user's.
4. Learn the history of every technology you work with.
5. When you don't fully understand the design, the plan will always look better than the result.
6. When you truly understand the design, the execution will exceed even what you planned.
7. Knowledge is power, but knowing the limits of your own knowledge is even more powerful.
8. Moving forward without enough knowledge can teach you a lot, but it will cost you.
9. A backup isn't really a backup until it has successfully restored something.
10. Redundancy can be an illusion. Build on rock-solid hardware and never assume otherwise.
11. Don't be afraid to fail, failure is a prerequisite to success.
12. Build a prototype whenever you can.
13. Constructive criticism is a gift to the person receiving it. Destructive criticism is only for the critic.
14. Simplicity is always the right goal, but getting there is often the hardest path.
15. The more complex your design, the louder the criticism will be.
16. A recovery plan is more valuable than any other plan you have.
17. Design first. Code last.
18. Innovation without action is just an idea to be forgotten.
19. When you find something that works, use it again and again without hesitation.
20. Optimism and a spirit of invention are the best qualities an engineer can have.
21. Keep your technical knowledge current.
22. Documentation decays from reality over time.
23. Ask questions openly and answer them honestly.
24. A reviewer whose only purpose is to review will eventually become the enemy of every good system.
25. Never throw away a version that works, even if you're confident the new one is better.
26. Time and preparation are the only real paths to full recovery.
27. A small task done carelessly can bring down a large task done perfectly.
28. To the executive: learn the language of your technical team.
29. Always schedule enough time. If you don't, the one who inherits your unfinished work will pay for it.
30. Charge what you're worth! As a good reputation will always outlasts it's price tag.
31. Don't just take the next order and run with it, because a software engineer is not a short-order cook.
32. Those who ignore history and rely only on what they know today will spend their careers rebuilding things that already failed.
33. Standing on the shoulders of those who came before you is almost always the smartest move.
34. Luck plays a role in both success and failure, but luck tends to favor the skilled, the prepared, and the ones who live by Rule 7.
35. In the middle of a crisis, if you don't know where the fire started, you will get burned by it.
36. Automation is a first class citizen. Design before code, Automate before Design.
37. Last, because it matters most, never lie.