Dare Obasanjo posted about Three Things I Learned About Software in College, which Scott Hanselman followed up with Three Things I Learned About Software WHILE NOT in College.  So here are my lists:

Things I learned about software in college

  1. Never close your eyes to learning.  The world of software is constantly evolving and if you don't stay in a learning mode, you will fall behind.  I started college writing code on mainframes and left college coding on PCs.
  2. There is no one perfect language.  There are the languages you know, the languages you don't know, and the languages that have yet to be created.  If you are following rule number 1, then the language you use today is likely not going to be the same as the one you use 5 years from now.  Get used to it.
  3. Programming is primarily about problem solving.  Improve your logical thinking skills and you will improve your programming skills.

Things I learned about software WHILE NOT in college

  1. No matter how good of a programmer you think you are, there is always someone better and faster:  Unless your name is Scott Hanselman.
  2. You are not as good a programmer as you think you are.
  3. Often, "good enough" is "perfect".

Things I THOUGHT I learned about software in college (but which I apparently need to keep re-learning)

  1. Some of my most brilliant code was written in the wee hours of the morning, the night before it was due.
  2. Some of my buggiest code was written in the wee hours of the morning, the night before it was due.
  3. Good code rarely happens in a vacuum.