I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

By Julian Sequeira

"I'm not good enough to be a software developer". This is one of the most common sentiments I've heard through having hundreds of conversations with budding developers. There seems to be some unjustified expectation that all successful software developers are masters of their craft. That to be one you have to know absolutely everything there is to know about the language and relative technology stack. That these "experts" are just naturally good at it. After years learning, teaching, working in and now coaching Python programming, it's become apparent that this just isn't true. In fact, the most successful developers I've met aren't just "naturally gifted" at all. Rather, the key to their success comes with having the right mindset. 

This may sound like a cop out but it really isn't. Having the right mindset as a software developer is key to your success. It isn't just about writing "clean code", that's only part of the equation.  It's how you think, behave, react and communicate that set you apart from the rest. A great example here is that of the Code Review. Some people shy away at the idea of their code being reviewed and critiqued by anyone, let alone their peers. They think their code isn't good enough and feel like any criticism is a sign of their ineptitude. This is all just Imposter Syndrome.

In reality, the Code Review is a process to not just ensure bugs in the code, inconsistencies and risks are mitigated, it's also there as a teaching mechanism. As we always say, "you don't know what you don't know". The mindset takeaway here is that successful developers look at the Code Review process as an opportunity to learn and grow. If their code is denied, they take that feedback and learn from it. They embrace the experience, consume the recommendations to fill potential gaps in their knowledge and then most importantly, implement what they learn. None of this has anything to do with their technical prowess, rather, it's all about how they choose to react to the situation.

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This is a topic that could fill countless pages but for brevity, I'll summarise some mindset tips you can take on or implement right now to make you a more effective developer:

1. Take all feedback as an opportunity for growth. Don't shy away from it. (Read more in the book, "Mindset" by Carol Dweck, one of my favourites). 

2. Communication is key. Being able to communicate your ideas will set you apart from the rest. Remember, not everyone you interact with will be a developer who understands the jargon! 

3. Know when it's time to take a break. Simplistic but effective. Walking away to give your active mind a break and coming back fresh helps get through those tricky coding problems. 

4. Build relationships often. Networking and having conversations whenever you can is a great way to keep opportunities coming your way. 

5. Share your knowledge! Great developers don't hoard information. They share, they believe in the growth of others around them and they take opportunities teach and mentor. 

6. Build a daily habit of learning. The skills don't just appear out of nowhere. They're a product of constant learning. Tinker and play, have fun with it, just be consistent. 

7. Set goals. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, setting goals will give you something to work toward. The best developers know why they're pushing code every day and what it means to them. 

8. Above all, determination and consistency will get you your success. Successful developers don't give up. They keep at it. If they hit a wall, they rethink their approach, seek help and advice, and find a way around the problem. 

Mindset isn't something many associate with being a successful developer but time and time again we see just how effective a strong mindset is at being able to survive and succeed in the world of software development.  

If you're looking to succeed as a software developer, whether you are one or not, there's one thing you need to do right now: take 5 minutes and plan your next step. What's the goal? What do you need to do to get there? 

Remember, there's so much more to being a successful developer than just knowing how to code! 

Julian Sequeira

Julian Sequeira

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT BY UNSUBSCRIBING FROM EMAILS

By Christine Wallace

Before writing this article, I used to be the kind of person who never deleted emails. I had an inbox of unopened emails in the hundreds if not thousands, knowing that most of them where subscriptions or newsletters I would never get around to reading. With roughly 294 billion emails having been sent and received every day in 2019, a figure set to only rise on a yearly basis, I don’t think I am alone in this. This raises the question of what, if any, impact do all these emails have on the environment? The answer is that, after taking in to account the energy used to send the email and the infrastructure needed in order to send it, every email sent creates around 4g of CO2 emission. As a result, 294 billion emails soon add up to just short of 1.2 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, an incredibly significant number when talking about climate change. A recent BBC article found that if everyone living in the UK sent one less email a day, it would equal tens of thousands of flights to Europe. Although this impact is still a scratch on the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases we add yearly to the atmosphere, it is a step in the right direction on the UK’s legal obligation to reach Net Zero by 2050. Managing your emails is just one step you can take to lowering your individual electricity demand and one which we can all do quickly and at no extra cost.

There is another environmental benefit in unsubscribing to fashion-based subscriptions in particular. The impact of producing and making clothes is monumental to green house emissions. A single pair of jeans adds an equivalent of 33.4kg of carbon. In fact, the fashion industry contributes more to climate change per year than all international flights and maritime travel combined. Every year it uses 93 billion cubic meters of water, enough for five million people. It is not just the resources that go in to making clothes that is the issue, but also the sheer amount of consumption and waste that follows it. Every week 13 million items of clothing end up in UK landfills. By unsubscribing to fashion marketing, you are less likely to impulse buy and over buy, helping save both your money and the environment. 

Less clothes

Unsubscribing, or even just clearing out your inbox, can also help the environment by reducing the server space used up by stored emails. The average number of emails in a person’s inbox today is 200, with each email size averaging 75kb, all of these stored emails are kept in data centres which require a large amount of energy to function. Roughly 2% of the world’s electricity is consumed by data centres and with data gathering continuing to grow this is expected to reach 8% by 2030. To put this into perspective, this is a greater energy consumption than some of the lesser developed countries. What makes this statistic more shocking is that only 6% of the data in those centres, including all those stored emails you have, is in active use. The result of this is simple, more fossil fuels are being burned to create the energy to keep your ‘data landfill’ functioning. Luckily, unlike the landfills those 13 million pieces of clothing go to each week in the UK, we as individuals can reverse our impact immediately simply by pressing the delete button.  

In its efforts to tackle climate change the world is making progress on relying on renewable energy sources to power our day-to-day activities, which may leave some thinking that as individuals we do not need to lower our energy consumption. However, as the world population grows, our way of living demands more energy and as lesser developed countries move closer to the living standards of developed countries, we need to lower our personal consumption and develop more energy efficient technology so that our consumption of electricity does not out scale our ability to produce it cleanly.

Christine Wallace

Christine Wallace

CITIZENLAB LAUNCHES OPEN SOURCE ENGAGEMENT TECH TO EMPOWER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Civic Tech platform CitizenLab is today announcing a move to open up the core version of its community engagement software, in an effort to equip smaller organisations and communities with the tools to democratise policy-making by involving more citizens. Available from March 31st, the open source code can be found on GitHub, enabling civic organisations to deploy and run their own virtual consultation projects, for free. 

CitizenLab’s technology allows people to make their voices heard using purpose built software designed to improve efficiency within civic decision-making. The platform provides governments, local authorities, and membership organisations with a ‘digital democracy toolbox’. This enables them to enrich community meetings with virtual discussion forums, organise votes on suggested policy changes, or gather new ideas through surveying tools. The civic engagement tools have been developed through a recognition of the need to improve outdated bureaucratic processes with innovative technology, increasing transparency and political participation. 

The open source software will be available through an AGPLv3 license, as demand for open software continues to grow amongst local governments. This will allow for the features to be made fully accessible and replicable, enabling organisations to deploy the platform on their own servers, make changes to the code, and power basic community engagement projects easily and efficiently. This move will mostly benefit small organisations and civic groups, who until now may not have been able to afford a licence. 

Founders - Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and Koen Gremmelprez and team

Founders - Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and Koen Gremmelprez and team

Larger clients and governments will continue to have access to paid-for licences, which come with technical support, guidance, and tailored advice. For larger institutions, the move to open source will be an opportunity to increase collaboration with their communities and develop custom integrations for their engagement projects. Organisations including Sport England, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have already embraced CitizenLab over the past few months, in a bid to ensure members’ and community voices are heard. 

“Our move to open source is a way to practice what we preach. We cannot credibly champion transparency and openness to the governments we work with, if we do not practice it ourselves, and if the underlying infrastructure is entirely closed-source. Democracy should not be left to the black-box algorithms of private companies - it belongs to all of us.

“We have also noticed that the demand for open source is growing amongst local governments. Making the move to open source will enable us to collaborate with governments on high-impact projects and provide adequate tools for online deliberation at a regional or national scale”.

Wietse Van Ransbeeck, CitizenLab’s

CitizenLab successfully launched in the UK in January 2020, and has previously worked with over 200 governments across 11 different countries to improve digital democracy. The decision to release an open source version of the software is reflective of CitizenLab’s willingness to prioritise  wider societal benefit over profit. 

Wietse Van Ransbeeck

Wietse Van Ransbeeck