Almost always better to work hard on your business that it is to work hard on raising capital
The best engineers don't care about tools at a macro level, they solve problems with whatever technology best suits
Avoid specialisation as long as it's reasonable to do so
Tools should be fit your problems, your problems shouldn't be fit to your tools
"We build all our [domain] in [technology], so we're going to use [technology] for everything"
Don't silo your people, their skills or their work. People are motivated by transformational change, give it to them.
Pay money to make things "not my problem". Spend time on your business, concentrate on where your value lies.
Releasing fast and releasing often are key, pick a stack that is conducive to that.
Test everything. Unit, functional and integration testing*
However, working and in production is better than tested and not.
Analytics lead product development, base decisions on key metrics. Data based product development.
Beware the GPL (et al)
Reminder: technical interviewing is broken
Some sample interview processes
Try to be technology agnostic
Definitely be framework agnostic
Try to contribute to open-source projects, or create your own
Attitude and aptitude
this, let, bind/call, hoisting, closures etc)System design
Code structure, modularity, dependency injection etc
CSS. Ugh.
Don't bother, use SASS/LESS/Stylus.
Framework's
Angular, Ember, React etc
Algorithm's, "Big-O" complexity etc
Never be afraid to say you don't know
Know your value, they want you more than you want them
It's core value is massive for startups
You probably don't need two-way binds
Use {{:: foo}} expressions instead
The digest loop will eventually bite you on the ass
Use an isolate scope for element directives. Share scope for attribute directives
Use element directives when content is injected, else use attribute directives
Use UI-Router. Routes are state, embrace a router that follows that representation
While you're at it, use controllerAs when referencing scope
Use resolvers
View is rendered once, user doesn't see flash, makes testing much easier
// Recommended
$stateProvider.state('customers.show', {
url: '/customers/:id',
template: template,
controller: 'CustomersShowController',
controllerAs: 'ctrl',
resolve: {
customer: [
'Customers',
'$stateParams',
function customerResolver(Customers, $stateParams) {
return Customers.findOne({
params: { id: $stateParams.id }
});
}
]
}
});
// Avoid
// Note: Controller written inline for the example
$stateProvider.state('customers.show', {
url: '/customers/:id',
template: template,
controllerAs: 'ctrl',
controller: [
'Customers',
'$stateParams',
function CustomersShowController(Customers, $stateParams) {
var ctrl = this;
Customers.findOne({
params: { id: $stateParams.id }
}).then(function(customers) {
ctrl.customers = customers;
});
}
]
});Inject ready data instead of loading it in the controller.
// Recommended
angular.module('customersShowControllerModule', [])
.controller('CustomersShowController', [
'customer', 'payments', 'mandates',
function CustomersShowController(customer, payments, mandates){
var ctrl = this;
_.extend(ctrl, {
customer: customer,
payments: payments,
mandates: mandates
});
}
]);
// Avoid
angular.module('customersShowControllerModule', [])
.controller('CustomersShowController', [
'Customers', 'Payments', 'Mandates', '$stateParams',
function CustomersShowController(Customers, Payments, Mandates, $stateParams){
var ctrl = this;
Customers.findOne({
params: { id: $stateParams.id }
}).then(function(customers) {
ctrl.customers = customers;
});
Payments.findAll().then(function(payments) {
ctrl.payments = payments;
});
Mandates.findAll().then(function(mandates) {
ctrl.mandates = mandates;
});
}
]);
Store presentation logic in controllers and business logic in services
Don’t manipulate DOM in your controllers, this will make them harder to test. Use directives instead.
Do not use jQuery selectors
Tear down your directives
Subscribe to $scope.$on('$destroy', ...) to get rid of any event listeners or DOM nodes created outside the directive element
angular.module('adminExpandComponentModule', [])
.directive('adminExpand', [
'$window',
function adminExpand($window) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
scope: {},
link: function adminExpandLink(scope, element) {
function expand() {
element.addClass('is-expanded');
}
$window.document.addEventListener('click', expand);
scope.$on('$destroy', function onAdminExpandDestroy() {
$window.document.removeEventListener('click', expand);
});
}
};
}
]);
Don't directly reference globals
That's what providers are for
Selenium is crap, so it can make protractor E2E test's flaky
Move towards Angular 2 sooner rather than later
ES6 modules, transpilation et al