Life Lessons for Developers: Maximizing Success and Happiness

As a 43-year-old developer, Travis shares 40 life lessons including career, finance, time management, and personal growth tips.

### 40 Life Lessons for 40-Year-Old Developers by Travis.media
* 👴 Embrace your **age and experience** in the workplace; don't try to act like the **younger employees**.
* 🕰 Utilize your time wisely by learning new skills, spending time with loved ones, and **working towards your goals**.
* 💰 Create **multiple streams of income** and focus on **managing and growing your money**.
* 🎥 Turn on your webcam in meetings to demonstrate **leadership and engagement**.
* 👩 Treat coding interviews as **human-to-human conversations**.
* 🔓 Keep your LinkedIn and job options open for **new opportunities**.
* 📚 Invest in **books, courses, and personal development** to continue learning and growing.
* 🤝 Make networking a lifestyle to build **meaningful connections** that can help you in the future.

hey everyone, Travis here from travis.media. In step with turning 43 this year, I've decided to do a video sharing 40 lessons about life that I've learned as a 40-year-old developer. Yeah, I know 43 isn't 40, but 43 just isn't as catchy. And we'll break these up into seven sections: relationships, finances, careers, programming, fitness, lifestyle, and time. In that order, let's get started. Number one, if you're my age or older, stop trying to act like one of the young guys or girls in the company. You're past the folly and silliness of that age. Don't try to be like them again. You're distinctly older, you're more thoughtful about your words, and you shouldn't try to join in on the immature banter. Stand out as an older man or woman, because that's who you are. Stop trying to be cool. Number two, try to answer people with a yes or a no, or at least some sort of definitive answer based on what you know. As Tim Denning

once said honesty is direct. Dishonesty is often indirect. You don't want to be known as a dishonest person. If you know you can't make an event or attend a lunch, don't do an um, well, maybe just do a no. I can't make it today. Be that person. Number three: Every person gets 24 hours a day. After sleeping 16, after working 8. Don't waste those gaming, watching Netflix, or scrolling on your phone. You'll blink and 10 years will be gone. Instead, take these 8 hours and learn a new skill or spend more time with the people you really care about: your wife, your kids, your family, meet up with friends, make memories, minimize future regrets, and make that time count. Do you have goals? Well, use these 8 hours a day to reach them. Just 3 hours a week will give you 15 extra hours to put yourself in a better position financially, or in your career, or in your relationships. Number four: Everyone should have multiple streams of income. This is essential, especially in this

economy a little bit coming from here and there. It really adds up. Investments, side jobs, passive income, crypto dividends, real estate, whatever. Just have more than one. And just to say, it's 100% okay to work a 9 to 5. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. However, this should be one of a number of sources of income. This is the 21st century. We shouldn't keep thinking we're still in the 20th. Number five, learn how to manage your money and grow it. You'll be making good money as a software developer often before you even have the wisdom on how to handle it. Learn to budget your money. I use YNAB for this. It's a budgeting app. I'll put a link below. And live by that budget. And then invest the rest in things that grow it. Number six, be cautious about how much you put into a 401k. There are tax advantages, but it's slow growth. You can't touch it until you're old. And in the grand scheme of

things cash flow is more important. When you get old, it's good to have a large sum to live off of, but it's even better to have, say, 10 rental properties paying you 6K a month every month until you die. And then you can leave them to your kids. And just a wild example, if you had 100K in Bitcoin just at the beginning of last year, instead of it being in a 401k, it would be worth 430 6K today. And that's in a little over 1 year's time. No, a 401k isn't a scam. Just be careful on how much you rely on it to save you one day. Not Financial advice. Number seven, and this is a hot take, turn your webcam on every time every meeting. Leaders of teams and those who excel or strive to excel are always quick to turn on their webcams in meetings. They have them on at the beginning, and they keep them on the whole meeting. On the other hand, followers and those who don't really

actively pursue and advance keep their webcams off it hurts but you know it's true number eight when you go to coding interviews remember that the interviewer is a human like you maybe their son is giving them trouble at home they're having marital problems their car is in the shop or they're struggling with some sort of depression you are also human and don't have to sit there like a wet cat begging for the job remember that he or she is also human then have a human to human conversation number nine always keep your LinkedIn and options open to other job offers do interviews every now and then regularly see where things take you regularly you shouldn't be married to your job I'm 100% certain your job is not married to you the average tenure of a software developer is around 16 months don't act like you're going to be there for longer than that thus keep your options open always maybe try for that dream job while you're at your current job you already have a job so you aren't

losing anything by trying also a new position at a company is the fastest way to a salary increase that could take you a decade by staying with the same company. Number 10, don't let people, especially management, walk over you at work. You're not that easily going to be fired. In fact, management often likes people that are more direct, and in being more direct, you're perceived as more trustworthy because you don't beat around the bush. Sorry, I have to leave by five today. That feature will take much longer to build than you've estimated. I don't think that's a good idea. I can't start on that yet because I'm currently still working on this. Be direct from adult to adult, and you'll find yourself much more appreciated. Remember that the software industry is vast. Throughout your career, your interests will change. When they do, don't be afraid to shift into a new position of that interest. One reason, among others, for burnout is doing the same thing over and over. To have a healthy and vibrant life career as a developer, you need to be

moving into positions that you become interested in over the years maybe from developer to project manager then to Cloud architect then to maybe a Solutions engineer then maybe to an AI researcher who knows but don't stay in a certain position for 30 years dreading what you do shift around as the interests come and go again it's a vast industry number 12 spend money on books courses and personal development set a budget for this and I have a video dedicated to this again I'll link it below but keeping yourself educated in investing into a life of learning is the key to success all the greats out there will tell you the same thing get a Kindle carve out time to read keep up with the latest trends via newsletters and read books to become better at communication ation soft skills marketing and whatever makes you a more happier knowledgeable more marketable person 13 making a lifestyle of networking is one of the most important things you can do meet new people join others for lunch remember people's names

think of them regularly and keep in touch with them. Help them if the opportunity arises, and they will help you when you need them, or often when you don't even know you need it. I also have a video on this; I'll link it below. 

14. Being a good developer will help you get the job and position within a company. Developing your soft skills will open many more doors within the industry. Many people can code, AI can code, but can they speak, persuade, and charm like you? Be sure you're not underbalanced here. 

15. Be accountable. If you made the mistake, own it, but don't bask in that mistake. Instead, it's then your job to find the solution. Don't pity in it, find a solution. Be this sort of person, a solution-minded person. Own the mistake and then take ownership of finding or helping to find the solution. 

16. Instead of being a programmer who waits for the next tasks to be assigned to them, take time to dive deep into the why's of your company, project, or contract. Try to

learn about the customer why you're building what you're building, and how things work at a deeper level. Be able to talk about those things in meetings and explain these wise to other developers on your team. Gaining this domain knowledge is one of the quickest ways in moving up in your company and proving your knowledge in this industry. It's what makes senior-level and principal-level developers and managers. If not, you'll stay a coder and you'll be easily replaced in the future. 17. Practice the art of pseudo-coding. Try to map out what the code will do or should do before you write any code. If you get this down, then it's just a matter of syntax. 18. It's good practice before you push your finished Branch up to GitHub to merge in the latest changes from Master first. This way you can handle any conflict locally and not after the fact and also to be sure that your code still works with the changes that have been made by the team while you were coding in your branch. 19. Always pad your time estimates for coding.

features almost always something will pose a problem and make you miss your already unattainable deadline. When you're in your stand-up and you go to give that estimate, double it. And I don't think this makes you look bad or slow. All people in management know the drill. Don't be the only one who doesn't. If you're self-taught and you haven't read the Grokking Algorithms book, go read it. The PDF is free online. Just go search for it. The concepts in this book will tie all of your missing links together. You'll learn how to optimize your algorithms with Big O. You'll learn recursion, data structures like hash tables, arrays, linked lists, and how they all work under the hood. You'll learn graphs and the most important search and sort algorithms. And it's a very fun book, easy to read, and is explained well. If you want the video versions, then go and check out my course in the Travis Media Community where I'm teaching chapter by chapter through this book. I'll put a

link below to it 21. As a software developer, remember that you are a problem solver more than you are a coder. Writing code is easy; there's documentation for that. Solving the problem or problems efficiently and without bugs is what you really get paid for. There's a quote out there that says prolific developers don't always write a lot of code; instead, they solve a lot of problems. These two things are not the same: first solve the problem, then write the code. 22. You are not in a skill match with your fellow programmers. Stop thinking of them as a threat to your intelligence just because they're better than you or that they will find out that you're an impostor. There will always be programmers better than you; they'll have the skills that you just don't possess. It's okay; it's what makes the whole clock tick. Take a day to get outside, have a talk with yourself, find out who you are, where you're at as a programmer, and make a PCT to accept that person as they are, as you are. Then be confident in

the stage of programming that you're currently in, and with new eyes, look at others as people to learn from and others as people to teach. Take on hard tasks at work when you're in your standup, and you're waiting for that one really easy task to grab. Instead, grab the hard one. You'll struggle, you'll have to research, you'll get frustrated, but you'll grow so much from having to do that hard work. Patrick McKenzie once said, Every great developer you know got there by solving problems they were unqualified to solve until they actually did it. When learning to code, watch tutorials, yes, take courses, yes, but these are not equal to getting hands-on. What all aspiring developers need to do is to take at least one substantial project, one that they come up with, map out, and see it through to completion by reading documentation, running into problems, solving bugs, wrestling with it, and refactoring it all on their own. And they will come out of this with way more knowledge than following along in more instructor-led courses.

mathematician Alan Turing said programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books. As a programmer, especially a new programmer, don't lose sight of your hobbies. Don't code 24/7. Get out, bike, run, hike, grill out, play games, whatever, but be sure that you have some sort of life outside of coding. I have a whole video on this as well, but don't let coding define who you are as a person. Let it be something among other things that you do; otherwise, you'll eventually have a meeting with the dreaded Mr. Burnout. There will always be bugs in your code or things that you didn't consider. If there wasn't, half of us would be gone. When you find a bug, this isn't a time to interrupt everyone on your groundbreaking new finding. Create a task for it and prioritize it if needed. Better than the bugs is actually a system in place that lets you troubleshoot and fix, like writing tests, logging, and a good CI/CD pipeline. When

you're talking with a customer, never promise anything before talking with your team first. No matter what stage is in or how much confidence you have personally, always say, let me check with my team on that. Keep a safe blurry wall up between you and the customer. I know this is cliche, but you only learn things by making mistakes. As new developers, our number one goal is to not make mistakes. We'll cheat, we'll hide things, and we'll put on masks just to conceal to everyone that we know what we're doing. But regardless, mistakes will be made. Accept them and then be sure to learn from them as to not do them again or make them again. Don't hesitate to tell your co-workers to create a new ticket for their issues when they come to you with new questions and problems. You also have tasks that you have to complete, deadlines that you have to meet, and you have to at some point focus to get these things done. And if you have to often jump to the aid of

others to help them in their new issues, or their questions, or their problems. You can't get your own work done when they say, Hey, I just pushed my code and I think I may have messed up such and such, or I can't get this service deployed correctly. I need you to come and help me or jump on a call with me. Calmly ask them to create a new ticket and maybe prioritize it for someone else to take on next, and let the process in place handle that issue instead of stopping what you're doing again to help them out. Your health is your number one priority. If you're well physically and mentally, you can work and you can make money. Your health is the gateway or portal that enables all the other priorities. Sitting all day is a known problem. This isn't debatable. You will be bedridden by 60 or even 50. Knowing this, you must get a standing desk at some point soon or find a way to stand more or find another career. Drink

more water. The majority of people just don't drink enough water. The headaches, the fatigue, the brain fog could all be that you're just dehydrated and need more water. I keep a big mason jar by my desk, staring me at the face all day to remind me to do so. Do the same. Try to work out at least 3 days a week. There's no excuse. You get one body and you can shape it to be something or you can let it become something you don't like. So many problems we have as humans go away with regular exercise, not only physical but mental. And it's simple. Walk daily, do push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, jumps, burpees, whatever, but do it at least 3 days a week. Break a sweat. You don't even need any weights. You know you have time and this time spent will give you more time in years to live. Get outside, get some sun on your skin daily. There are benefits from nurturing your circadian rhythm, vitamin D, to just making the body

feel alive again. It's vital in many countries. It's just common sense, but in the Western World, especially those with desk jobs like us, we need to be reminded. Here's your reminder: 35. Never boast in being fully remote if you never travel. The original goal was to be able to work from anywhere in the country or the world, and being fully remote allows you to do this. Don't then betray yourself by not taking the opportunity to work from other places, travel to another state for 2 weeks or another country for a month, and work from there, and take your family. Why not? Well, wasn't that the goal? 36. Try to do one hard thing every day. This could be getting up early and running, not because you need to run, but because it forces you to do something against your comfort. How about asking a coworker to lunch? And I know you'd rather be left alone and enjoy your baloney sandwich, but you'll do so solely because you don't want to do so, and in that interaction, you'll find more success in

fulfillment 37 try to save your easiest and shortest tasks for the end of the workday. Meaning don't be pushing your code at 5:00 p.m. or 4 or even three. Instead, save it for the morning. And the reason is you don't want to be doing anything at the end dis of the day that may prohibit you from leaving on time. You want to wind down and be done. Perhaps this means saving replying to emails or documenting things or some meetings for the end of the day. 38 programming is a mentally taxing job. Therefore, max out your PTO or pay time off every year. If you have sick time, don't be afraid to use it. Even if you just feel a little bit under the weather or just need a day to get back on your feet. And don't trade your PTO for money at the end of the year. Instead, use it. Trust me, use it all. 39 ultimately your boss doesn't care about you. They care about the budget and their own boss. Your politician, your president. Check out.

lady at Target guy stock in the shelves none of them care about you but your family does and your friends do so be sure to give priority and care to the right people 40 an unchecked life will pass in a Flash if you've listened to my story link below before learning to code. I took a job at a hospital temporarily as I looked for something better and 10 years passed at that same job. If you let your days months years go unchecked unchallenged without goals you will wake up an old person with many regrets. Take time to evaluate your current situation regularly. If you're comfortable where you're at you're probably overdue. If you found this video helpful give it a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed to the channel consider doing so and I'll see see in the next video. [Music]

40 Life Lessons from a 40-Year-Old Developer

Hi, my name is Travis and I am a self-taught software developer of 7 years. 

I learned to code and stepped out as a full-time freelance within 1 year. Since then I have entertained full-stack development, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering and have documented my journey here on the channel.

Here you'll find coding tutorials, career advice, professional coding tips, life hacks, and the ups and downs of this highly enriching journey of software engineering. 

I make videos specifically for YOU and if there is anything specific you would like to request please don't hesitate to ask. 

If all this sounds like something that can help you on your own coding journey, consider subscribing and joining me along the way!

Kind Regards, 

Travis

Travis Media

media shares 40 life lessons as a 43-year-old developer, covering relationships, finances, career, and time management.

He emphasizes the importance of not trying to act younger, being honest and decisive, making the most of time, having multiple streams of income, managing and growing money wisely, being cautious about 401k, and always turning on the webcam in meetings.

Always remember that interviewers are human too, so approach interviews as a human-to-human conversation.

Keep your options open for other job offers and don't hesitate to pursue your dream job while you're still employed.

Be assertive at work and don't be afraid to shift into new career positions as your interests change to avoid burnout.

Invest in your personal development by spending money on books, courses, and networking to become a more knowledgeable and marketable professional.

Being a skilled developer is important, but improving soft skills can open up more opportunities in the industry.

Taking ownership of mistakes and focusing on finding solutions is crucial for personal and professional growth.

Instead of just waiting for tasks, gaining deep knowledge of the company, project, and customers can help in advancing within the company.

As a software developer, focus on solving problems efficiently rather than just writing code, as that is what you're paid for.

Stop seeing other programmers as a threat and instead view them as people to learn from and teach.

Take on challenging tasks to grow professionally, and remember that hands-on projects and practice are crucial for learning.

Additionally, don't forget to maintain a life outside of coding to avoid burnout, and prioritize creating a system for troubleshooting and fixing bugs in your code.

Always consult your team before making promises to customers to maintain a professional boundary.

Embrace mistakes as a way to learn and grow, rather than trying to conceal them.

Prioritize your own work tasks and don't hesitate to redirect co-workers to follow the proper process for addressing their issues.

Remember that your health is the most important priority, so consider incorporating movement, staying hydrated, and working out into your routine for a better work-life balance.

Maintaining a Fulfilling Work-Life Balance

Being fully remote should involve traveling and experiencing new places, in line with the original goal.

Challenge yourself daily to do something outside of your comfort zone for personal growth.

Save easy tasks for the end of the day to allow for a smooth transition and prioritize using your paid time off for mental refreshment.