"Paint every day" is great advice for staying sane and remembering the craft of programming (or for that matter painting). I don't know how old the author is,

"Paint every day" is great advice for staying sane and remembering the craft of programming (or for that matter painting). I don't know how old the author is, so I have no idea what "5-10 years" means to him, but for anyone not at the beginning of their career I might add: 1) Add value well beyond any specific "engineering" you do. Beyond a certain point you will be valued for what you bring to the business; your coding mojo becomes less interesting to everyone as you get older. 2) Be good (get better) at the social part, including the boring meetings. Or make your "F-you" money in the startup world and do whatever you want... but if you don't do that, over time you will need to be good at the interpersonal side of the business you're in. 3) Don't treat #1 or #2 as excuses to stop caring about the code. Even if you make SVP and can't (shouldn't!) care about the company's code in detail, you should still care about your own, and about good code in general. Otherwise they will see your soul at the edges of your eyes, and it will be corrosive. Like probably most of us, I need to work more on #2, and get better at explaining #1. I do code every day, meaning 5-6 days a week; but I admit that I struggle to actually paint regularly (I am also a painter). Working on it...