40 Life Lessons from a 40-Year-Old Developer

In step with turning 43 this year, I decided to put together a video with 40 lessons about life that I've learned through the years.

The topics range from relationships to finance to programming, to career advice, and more.

Let me know in the comments some key advice you've picked up or want to share!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
-- RELATIONSHIPS --
00:27 1 Act your age
00:47 2 Say what you mean
01:09 3 Stop wasting time
-- FINANCES --
01:45 4 Have multiple streams of income
02:13 5 Be financially literate
02:29 6 Limit your 401K
-- CAREER --
03:12 7 Turn on your webcam
03:33 8 Interviewers are human, too
03:55 9 Keep your options open
04:33 10 Be direct
05:00 11 Let interests guide you
05:36 12 Budget for education
06:07 13 Make networking a lifestyle
06:26 14 Soft skills are key
06:42 15 Be accountable
07:02 16 Seek domain knowledge
-- PROGRAMMING --
07:39 17 Learn to pseudocode
07:51 18 Merge before pushing
08:08 19 Pad time estimates
08:27 20 Read Grokking Algorithms
09:02 21 Be a problem solver
09:27 22 Know Yourself
10:03 23 Do the hard tasks
10:25 24 Build stuff
10:59 25 Stop coding all the time
11:25 26 Bugs will always exist
11:47 27 Never promise a customer
12:03 28 Make mistakes
12:25 29 Protect your time
-- FITNESS -
13:06 30 Health above all
13:19 31 Chairs kill
13:32 32 Hydrate more
13:49 33 Shape or be shaped
14:18 34 Feel the burn
-- LIFESTYLE --
14:40 35 Travel
15:01 36 One hard thing daily
15:21 37 Easy comes last
15:49 38 Max our your PTO
-- TIME --
16:09 39 Prioritize people
16:26 40 Check yourself

-- MENTIONED RESOURCES --

** My Coding Blueprints **

** I write regularly **

** FREE EBOOKS **

LET'S CONNECT!

#selftaughtdeveloper #lifelessons #careeradvice #programming

** Some of the links in this description may be affiliate links that I may get a little cut of. Thank you.

[billyilla]

You are a wonderful person. Thanks for giving us a 43 years lesson in 17 minutes and 14 seconds

[AdrianTregoning]

I've commented many times on your videos. I'm 42, a mechanical engineer. This week I finally landed an internship at a small tech company! Super stoked. It was scary, it was tough, I wanted to give up many times, but I didn't. And finally the door opened. Super stoked. Thanks for inspiring average people like me.

[argamboad]

Just loved it! I'm a 45 year old self-taught software engineer (yeah, one of those hated ones LOL), been doing this since 1998, so quite a few years. Very valuable lessons here, I could not agree more on almost all of them. But the point here is not on how many I agree with, how many I don't or why; the point is how inspiring this video was for me. At this point on someone's career it's very easy to find yourself in a career rabbit hole, but your video encouraged me to carry on, because I love what I do for a living, and you remind me that. Please keep doing this, I find this channel so helpful to anyone in the industry, junior or senior. Techy channels explaining the 1s and 0s there are a lot, but yours is like having a cup of coffee with a colleague, and we need that too so badly. You are helping people sir, cheers to that!!

[funforfun-pr]

At nearly 50, I have to say this video is hands down the best I’ve ever seen. Every goal is clearly explained in detail—brilliantly done!

[Affiliaterobo]

Man, I am near 40’s, work in marketing, learned python and sql, learning html, js, css from Odin projects and really like this field but was too afraid to dip in. Don’t know how YT algorithm suggested your video but now I have HOPE! . Gonna keep learning, sure it may take time but you are the biggest example That passion pays off.

[cody_codes_youtube]

This is great advice! Thanks for sharing and making this video. Good work!

[analystengineer]

This video deserves rewatching again and again. Thanks, Travis

[imjaiprakash-onlz]

Very relevant and useful tips, Travis. Thanks for jotting down so nicely and share with all.

[longnguyenthanh]

I watch Travis since 2019 for my thesis. Now I'm quite "old" in the industry and everything just feel so old. I feel I'm very lacking. I'm not sure I really like to code anymore. My brain isn't clear and I did thing so slow. Seeing Travis, I'm glad he is doing well. I hope he will success not just in this industry (which he already did :D) but also everything else.
P/S: I'm looking for a team to start a fun startup :D Still watching every online guru to get more info on this

[BytesWithSiraj]

It's a very HONEST and great video from Personal experience... I feeling all the points at this time

Great work @travis

[MaestaRCZ]

Hi, I am 38 years old and just started learn to code to switch my carrer. Your channel is wonderful and I am very gratefull to you.

[wendiborden]

All things I need to hear! Eventually will listen to myself.. thanks Travis, please keep it coming 💖

[nqc]

this was an amazing video, coming from a new grad I’ve been having coffees with senior devs and they’ve said very similar things

[abdirahmanabdul]

Thanks for this amazing video, Iam in the process of changing from trucking to tech Thanks🎉🎉🎉

[PoteRomo]

This video came at the right time and at the right moment. I am learning the hard way...

[zakariaelhalbi]

i really need to go through you whole channel and take priceless notes

[shafiqahmadzai]

Love the content you put out Travis! Thanks 😊

[mazlanhalim]

Thanks Travis for pointing that out >> #32 Hydrate more = Drink more water! Invaluable tip!!! Plus, empty your bladder and bowel as soon as possible. Why? Kidney stone. I learned this the HARD way last year. I didn't drink enough water and keep procrastinate going to the restroom just to finish up on some code or fixing a bug.

Surely enough at the age of 46 I got kidney stone attack. It was the most painful experience I ever had in my life. I wouldn't wish it to anyone even to my worst enemies. Drink 3 liters of water (fruits included) and avoid spinach and peanuts, thank me later.

[bena]

Love your videos! I love that you are talking about soft skills they are often overlooked

[pabiforbes]

Thank you for this Travis. Very valuable 🙌🏾