#122 – Essential Things Every Software Engineer Should Know – Kevlin Henney – Tech Lead Journal
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/05
Every interview with Kevlin Henney is worth reading, listening or watching and this is no exception: [Wayback/Archive] #122 – Essential Things Every Software Engineer Should Know – Kevlin Henney – Tech Lead Journal
It covered quite a bit of two classic books he (co-)edited: “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know” and “97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know” as their content is relatively timeless.
His first book has been open source for more than 10 years now. The repository is at [Wayback/Archive] 97-things/97-things-every-programmer-should-know: Pearls of wisdom for programmers collected from leading practitioners. and an easier readable edition is at [Wayback/Archive] Introduction · 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know.
Via a great quote on Twitter: [Wayback/Archive] Tech Lead Journal on Twitter: “Comment only what the code cannot say, not what the code does not say. Hear more from @KevlinHenney in episode 122.”
“Comment only what the code cannot say, not what the code does not say.” Comments are code that is not code, which means that they don’t get checked for correctness. Most comments are wrong, and if they don’t start out that way, they become that way.
Kevlin Henney
Editor of “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know”
and [Wayback/Archive] Tech Lead Journal on Twitter: “Despite knowing many good practices to deliver software better, we still yet struggle with it. What are the good ideas we are still not applying consistently? Hear more from @KevlinHenney in episode 122.”.
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Leave a comment