The last list may have been more of a writing issue. I'd paborbly rephrase #4 as "Don't memorize APIs in fine-grain detail." It's more important to understand the underlying concepts of what the API can do and how to best leverage it. Leave memorizing things like the order of arguments to the documentation or IDE. For example with Oracle, I use the Reference manual or the describe command if I need a list of columns in a V$ view. I just have to be aware that Version N of Oracle may now have a V$ view that has info I need (or remember to query V$FIXED_TABLE when in doubt). Okay, maybe I'd rewrite that whole thing as "Memory of pointers to information is usually more compact than the memory needed to remember the information itself." Undestanding concepts would be a separate piece of advice.#9 is more like "Don't ask questions if you can find the answer yourself in 10 seconds." The author misses that (to me at least) asking a discussion question is almost equivalent to getting advice. So the paragraph conflicts with the tip. In general, I imagine this article would get a low score in the essay portion of the SAT.I'm not 50 yet, so I can't comment on Dave Barry's list. I still haven't learned to remove the fortune from the fortune cookie first. I'm too greedy about losing crumbs if you break them open by hand.

A provocative insight! Just what we need!

Intelligence and simplicity - easy to understand how you think.

This is both street smart and intelligent.

I read your posting and was jealous

I have exactly what info I want. Check, please. Wait, it's free? Awesome!

Superior thinking demonstrated above. Thanks!

Ah, i see. Well that's not too tricky at all!"

I might be beating a dead horse, but thank you for posting this!

I was drawn by the honesty of what you write

Frankly I think that's absolutely good stuff.

I don't even know what to say, this made things so much easier!

Articles like this make life so much simpler.

The expertise shines through. Thanks for taking the time to answer.