KinderCode

Created by: btodoroff, Last modification: 09 Feb 2004 (05:25 UTC)

All I Really Need to Code I Learned in Kindergarten

  • All I really need to know about how to code and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.

  • Wisdom was not at the top of the university mountain, but there in the sand-pit at kindergarten.

These are the things I learned:

  • Doucument everything.
  • Don't flame people. Play fair.
  • Help the new kid.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don't take things that aren't yours.
  • Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Test your code before you commit.
  • Flush abandoned code down the toilet.
  • Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced live - learn a little and think a little and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day a little.
  • Take a nap every afternoon and once before IRC.
  • When you go out into the net, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the yoghourt carton: The roots go down an the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Ideas and initiatives and projects and even the little seed in the yoghourt carton - they all die.
  • And then remember your first open source project and the first word you learned - the biggest of all - ASK.
  • Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule (treat the others as you would like them to treat you) and love and basic coding style. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if all coders had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

  • And it is still true, no matter how much of a guru you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Based on All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum