10 Rules for Devs book cover: lessons learned from 25 years as a professional developer, by Leitz the developer

“Leitz collected a few exciting problem/solution pairs that can significantly boost your productivity”

Csaba Kissi, Solopreneur

The 10 software rules I learned the hard way.

25 years of shipping production software, boiled down to 10 short rules. Read them over lunch. Free.

“10 Rules for Devs” is a short book. It covers the 10 most valuable rules I know for building business software.

I wrote it because nobody else was talking about these topics. Everybody learns them eventually. Usually the expensive way.

These rules came the hard way. Not from a professor in a stuffy classroom. From the trenches, writing real software that makes real money.

These are the 10 most important lessons I learned in 25 years of shipping systems that handle 100,000,000+ transactions a day.

  • The importance of using custom scripts
  • Question everyone
  • Understand your tools
  • The truth behind floating point numbers

Each rule is short. You can read all 10 in about 15 minutes and use them on Monday.

Table of contents

Here are all 10 rules.

“10 Rules for Devs” is 10 tight rules. No filler.

There are plenty of good books on being a better developer. Most take hours to read and cost $50 or more.

Busy devs can learn these 10 rules in about 15 minutes.

What are the 10 rules?

  1. 10 Rules for Devs

Resources

Tools and resources that help you follow the rules outlined in 10 Rules for Devs.

Use these resources to help create Bash scripts faster. Embrace rule 1!

  1. LicketyScript, the Bash script generator

    LicketyScript

    Name a Bash or zsh script, list its options, and download a script that parses flags, checks values, and writes the help. It's free.

  2. easy-easy speakeasy, a private club for developers

    easy-easy speakeasy

    A private club for developers who build and ship. You get in by solving a puzzle over SSH.

  3. Mike Leitz on X

    Leitz on X

    My X account, @mleitz1. Ask me about any of the rules. I post what I build, what broke, and the numbers.

Pricing

10 Rules for Devs

The software business has given me so much, I'm giving back. This ebook is yours. Delivered right to your inbox.

$0

  • All 10 rules
Get it here

Some kind words from early readers...

I worked with a small group of early access readers to make sure all of the content in the book was what they needed. Here's what they had to say about the finished product.

  • Leitz collected a few exciting problem/solution pairs that can significantly boost your productivity

    Csaba Kissi
    Solopreneur
  • 10 Rules is a concise treasure trove of wisdom and insight.

    Zack Adams
    Math and Technology expert
  • Leitz calls out rules that don't usually get talked about, and draws on a two decades long career to help you navigate them. 10 Rules is a quality addition to any developer's reading list!

    Jonathan Collins
    Full stack developer
Mike Leitz

Author

Mike Leitz. I wrote 10 Rules for Devs.

I've been developing professional, large scale applications for 25 years. Systems that handle 100,000,000+ transactions a day and generate millions of dollars for big businesses.

I also build and run my own production systems. About 50 apps on a homelab in my office. Java and Quarkus most days, with Postgres underneath. My main project is easy-easy speakeasy, a private club for developers who build and ship. You get in by solving a puzzle over SSH.

When you develop software professionally, you don't have time for big training manuals and courses. That's why I wrote 10 Rules for Devs. Read it over your lunch break.