(by Ronny Errmann)
Every time I prepared for interviews or when I started a new role, I learned so many new concepts. Unfortunately, once working in a scientific role, I found it harder to keep this learning up. Making the time to learn about concepts and to talk about code was quite low on my priority list. While reviewing code is something, which I still think is difficult, learning new concepts is something that can easily done. For example, freeing up one hour once or twice a week can make a big difference. Recently I look into C++ methods and just by looking through a few pages of a tutorial (e.g. about classes), I feel I increased my knowledge by a large amount. So there is really no reason to use that as an excuse.
Discussion about code is a bit more difficult. Being the sole programmer in a team doesn’t make things easier, discussion of code means I take time from a different project. Furthermore, in a scientific environment, most people were also self-taught and, like me, only learned the necessary information and were goal driven. But of course, it is important to discuss code and the few experiences, that I have had in the last months, together with the explanation how companies practise these discussions, have changed my view a lot. It is worth the effort, and try to find a group to discuss things can be really beneficial. So similarly to my last post, I would answer to the question, if I would do things differently now with a clear yes.
Ronny Errmann 