Lessons learned the hard way

Let’s keep these short and to the point.

Not everyone has a first and last name.

Internet connections can cut out at any moment while using a web form.

<select> inputs in HTML without a value attribute in the option tags will submit other-language values if client-side translation is active

use <option value="hello">hello</option> instead of just <option>hello</option>
Also consider adding translate="no" as an attribute on the <select>

Python3’s built in round function will round .5’s towards the even choice

round(0.5) == 0, round(1.5) == 2, round(2.5) == 2
How to properly round-up half float numbers? < Proper way to solve this in python
# Mirko's Disgusting hack for intuitive rounding (0.5 -> 1) # Don't use this (i do) (assumes positive numbers only, also that you dont care about small decimal points) def rounder(number, ndigits=None): # Just tip the scales towards positive lol return round(number + 1e-8, ndigits)

Five generalities Daniel has learned the hard way (evidenced by making the same mistake many times, but recognized eventually.)

I’ve had many instances of a priority I had completely forgotten about because I didn't have an effective reminder to come back to it.
- eg., "do this every six months" -> get a reminder system I trust.
- For me, that's todoist.
Forgetting to document something I needed n months later -> "hey, I should document this new thing while I remember it." -> hey, the second time I needed it, I should document this -> I was lazy and didn't last time. OK, 3rd time's the charm...
Multiple times, forgetting to warn an external group of a database schema change that affected them -> "who does this affect?" before pushing the change to prod
Most embarrassing: laziness double-checking what server I was on when I changed something or rebooted.
Most disrespectful: knowing I made a mistake that I'll have to own up to, and putting it off: does nobody any good.