10 steps to become a better .NET developer

In response to this blog article, I'd like to present to you my very own list of tips to become a better .NET developer.

• Read a bunch of .NET related books. From each book, try to remember the stuff you feel will make you a better developer, and forget the rest.
• Read a bunch of programming books. From each book, try to remember the stuff you feel will make you a better developer, and forget the rest.
• Learn Unit Testing, so that when that day comes when your senior developer or manager coerces you into using it that at least you can defend yourself if you feel it’s not what you need.
• Idem dito about Continuous Integration, Cloud Computing, ORMs, Scrum, BDD, DDD, TDD, EDD, ServiceBus, Messaging Architectures, CQRS, IoC Containers.
• Keep yourself up to date by reading popular blogs and following popular people on Twitter. Many of these are biased or outright zealots, but that’s ok because you should follow all sides at once. While you do, keep an eye out for “the next big thing” and keep a ton of salt ready.
• Realize that, if you’re not a passionate developer, there’s not much use in reading these tips and you probably won’t ever become a better developer. If that makes you unhappy, find a different career.
• Learn about version control systems. Regardless of how many you know already, there may be more that you’ll never ever encounter, but it’s nice to see just how green the grass is on the other side. It may be greener, but it’s probably browner once you’re past the marketing fluff.
• Realize that, if you’re a passionate developer, you probably know most of these “tips” already, or at least you’re convinced you did and you’re just scanning over them to see if there’s any new acronyms in there that you didn’t hear about yet. Good boy.
• Listen to whatever Anders Hejlsberg says. He’s the next best thing to God himself. If he’s in town, clear your schedule.
• Realize that every list of tips you read is written by a passionate developer, who has his own personal beliefs that may cloud his judgement from time to time when he prepares such list of tips. Such as yours truly.