Answering Questions for InfoQ's "Big Names Say"
My apologies for taking so long to answer these.
Hello — I listened to your livestream yesterday and got a great deal out of it. Thank you. I’ve just completed my first year of work. What do you think one should focus on early in a career? As someone who has been down this road, I’d love it if you could spare a few words of advice.
Early on, you should focus on positioning yourself in your career and on building habits. Positioning is genuinely difficult. Don’t define yourself as, say, “a Java programmer” — that’s far too vague, and you’ll easily dissolve into the crowd. You should have a very specific positioning: “a JVM performance-tuning expert,” for example. Good positioning gives you a clearer direction. As for building habits: your coding style, your way of getting things done, even going to bed early and rising early, reading at fixed times in fixed amounts — these habits will play an extremely important role as your career develops. Note that habit-building isn’t just about piling up hours; it also requires deliberate practice.
What’s your take on taking on freelance/side work?
I don’t have much of one. If your ability allows it and your energy allows it, you earn an extra buck — why not?
What advice do you have for people without a computer science background who are just starting to learn programming? And if they want to make a career of programming down the road, any suggestions or parting words?
Build solid fundamentals. I’ve met non-CS people who write good code; most of their weaknesses lie in data structures (though few JavaScript engineers these days can handle a balanced binary tree) and in basic knowledge such as network protocols. Many people who have done web development for years have never even read the HTTP spec. They work either by inheriting their predecessor’s mistakes or by inheriting their own taken-for-granted mistakes.
Regarding algorithms, data structures, and math — how can I check whether I’ve met the “A-list talent” standard by the time I graduate?
This actually has nothing to do with A-list talent. But if you want to test your algorithms/data-structures ability, try leetcode or topcoder, or follow Chen Liren’s WeChat public account, “Dai Zi Gui Zhong” (roughly, “Still Unspoken For”).
How do you balance depth and breadth in technology? With all the architectures, frontend, backend, and everything else out there, how should one approach learning?
I recommend digging deep into your own beachhead — the deeper the better — and striving to become the acknowledged master of that domain. Then expand into other knowledge: a mile wide, an inch deep (a phrase from CISSP).
What is the purpose of foreign companies setting up R&D centers in China? For example, adRise is building one here — once I join, what will the work mainly consist of?
Recruiting local talent. Beijing’s mid-to-senior technical talent is world-class, not a notch below Silicon Valley. adRise has so far hired full-stack engineers, Android engineers, and data engineers. The work is no different from that of the US engineering team. In fact, I hope we can make contributions the US team couldn’t.
