I’ve tried to recount below the distinct skills that I feel I lacked most sorely when attempting to take my hobbyist mindset into the working world. Truly understanding the needs of PMs, managers and all other stakeholders will make your life 1000x easier (and theirs!). Truly understanding the code written by others — internalizing it as if it were my own — is incredibly hard. It’s better to share what you know humbly, hopeful that someone else knows more, than to share nothing at all. You’ll be pushed and tugged towards towards understanding your work through metrics and expectations that you may not agree with.