What makes a good developer?

This question always comes up on my feed. Together with "X Habits of Good Developers", How to be an effective developer, etc. After much thought over my own personal experiences, I would say that there is pretty much 3 key aspects of being a good developer. And they are,

1. Competency in writing code.
2. Ability to articulate the code you've written properly to others.
3. Writing documentations!

Amongst the 3 aspects, I personally value writing documentation as the key to demonstrating your ability as a developer. This is because, writing a good documentation shows that you know your own code and how it works. It shows that you care about your code and take responsibility in ensuring its accuracy and updates whenever there are changes.

Then what makes a good senior?

Be the senior you wish you had as a junior.

I'm sure this comes up often, there are medium articles to reddit posts about it. But it all boils down to how comfortable you are in sharing knowledge. Of course there are ways to move up the ladder, but for me as long as someone asks me a question I do my best to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

I might be giving wrong advice, but if you understand the codebase well enough you point them to the right direction. Sometimes if you don't know, then you don't know. Leave a note or something so when you have time, you find out about it. That keeps you learning more, as a developer you need to have the mindset that you need to be constantly learning.

Now I may not be a Senior, but if any other new employee that joins the team. I'd be sure they don't walk the same path of frustration, or jump into the same rabbit hole when trying to solve an issue when someone else has already done it. That is why writing good documentation is key in not only the growth as an individual. But it benefits others, improving their productivity and effectiveness as an employee. Which sort of helps the company save time, and money of sorts. This could be a two-way thing of course, but it really depends on yourself your personality as an individual.

So what documentation is a good documentation?

Any! Have you ever followed a guide in the documentation and spent hours figuring out how the hell is it not working? Now it's your turn to shine, figure it out update the documentation to avoid those issues in the future. Its hard to keep up with updating and working on it means ignoring parts of your job which is to develop. However, spending time writing/improving/updating documentation can have a compounding effect. Other developers will get stuck less frequently, lesser needless questions will surface, and when you have a good documentation, and it's written by you don't you feel a sense of achievement. It shows that you care and there is value in it definitely!

Why is it a good habit?

Good habits create growth opportunities, and I personally feel that, it's a development area which many people do not see it as a key aspect for growth as a company or growth for the individual.