Speaking from personal experience, there are a lot of fads in software development. From the most recent language to the latest and greatest library. From desig

Speaking from personal experience, there are a lot of fads in software development. From the most recent language to the latest and greatest library. From design patterns through to work practices like Agile and TDD. You must be critical in your thinking for each one of these. Just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for you. Personally, I think that most design patterns are used as an excuse to make a simple system complex. I think that unit tests are more painful to maintain than they are worth (in many cases). I think that new technology should be approached carefully and only proven tech with minimum lockin should be used. Don't go round saying that "experienced developers always do X" because a real experienced developer knows that X is great for some things and a huge waste of time for others.