One of the hazards of developing for a large company is that you tend to fall into a niche, due to the managerial wont for having "Experts" on parts of the system easily identifiable and accessible. So you get more of the work on the parts you know well, because you can solve probelms faster (for field issues) and can plan faster (for new development).
The downside of this is that you can lose sight of how your skill set really maps up to others, because you're working in an area where you are supported by your background knowledge, as opposed to your programming skill.
I'm feeling this lately, since I've been stuck in customer support Hell for a while. So when I consulted with a cow-orker about an issue, and determined that code I was working on was exhibiting signs of voodoo programming (No chickens were harmed in the production of this code), I was reminded of this list. It's a little tongue-in-cheek, but it has points to ponder.
Too often we forget to revisit the basics of the craft - or time pressures make us fall back to old code practices that are not so good anymore. So take some time this holiday season to look at your skill set and see if you could use some polish in the basics.
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