--- title: "My Evolving Programming Mindset" description: "A Software Engineer's Growth Journey Over Nearly a Decade: From Chasing New Technologies and Over-Engineering to Seeing the Value of Systems, Organizations, and Business." canonical_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/mindset-towards-programming-over-the-years" author: "Mark Ku" author_url: "https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku" site: "Mark Ku's Tech Notes" date_published: "2024-08-27 01:01:35 +0800" category: "Management" tags: ["mindset", "career", "programming", "growth", "reflection"] language: "en" license: "CC BY 4.0" license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" attribution: "when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original" --- # My Evolving Programming Mindset > **TL;DR** — 歡迎來到 Mark 的技術雜談，我是主持人璦廷。寫程式將近十年的時間，你眼中的程式碼世界，會發生什麼樣的改變呢？ 今天讓我們來看看一位軟體工程師近十年的職涯心境演變。剛踏入業界時，許多工程師的眼中往往只盯著新潮的技術，甚至會陷入追求完美與過度設計的盲點。但這個重點值得注意，隨著經驗的累積，我們會學會放下執念，轉而選擇最適合當下場景的技術。 接著，視角會進一步拉高。從原本只專注於大量的程式碼，進階到能看清背後的需求與整體系統架構；再從系統層面，看見了整個組織與環境的協作關係。最後，也是最成熟的階段，是能夠在日常重複的工作中，真正理解每一項任務背後的商業模式與核心價值。 總結來說，這十年的歷程不僅是技術的提升，更是思維的昇華，從見樹不見林的技術狂熱，蛻變為掌握全局的專業工作者。下次當你在敲擊鍵盤時，不妨思考看看，你現在寫下的這行程式碼，正在為哪一個商業目標創造價值呢？ It's been almost ten years since I graduated from the Institute for Information Industry (III) and began my software career. I've been writing code this whole time, but my mindset and what I see have been different at each stage. When I first started coding, my eyes were fixed only on trendy new technologies. I went from occasionally pursuing perfection and over-engineering to learning how to choose the appropriate technology. Then, from within the vast codebase, I began to see the requirements and the system. And from the system, I began to see the organization and its environment. Finally, through the repetition of daily work, I came to understand the business model and the value behind every task. --- ## About this article and its author Originally published on [Mark Ku's Tech Notes](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/post/mindset-towards-programming-over-the-years) License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — when reusing or quoting, credit the author and link back to the original ### About the author **[Mark Ku](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/author/mark-ku)** — Software Solution Provider - 10+ years senior software engineer, now an AI Builder - Focused on large-platform architecture — North-American e-commerce, AI SaaS subscription billing - Combining AI Agents and automation to build evolvable product foundations ### Free tools built by the author All of these are free to use: - [Free PDF Sign Tool](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/pdf-sign): Online PDF sign tool — draw, type, or upload a signature, then drag, resize, and download. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. - [VS Code Refactory](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/refactory): Refactory is a VS Code refactoring extension: 34 actions plus a 37-rule code-smell inspection layer with a Code Health dashboard, across 18 languages, backed by 534 tests. It learns your repo's conventions: where interfaces live, where DI is registered, whether 'use client' belongs. It ranks files by git churn × complexity so you know what to fix first, and hands any smell to the Claude Code already on your machine. Free to use, and your source never leaves your computer. - [DB-Kit Database Manager](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/db-kit): DB-Kit is a lightweight, cross-platform database manager built with Tauri + Rust + React. Manage MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch and RabbitMQ from one consistent interface: passwords encrypted in the OS keychain, SSH tunnels, full CRUD, a visual query builder, stacked multi-statement result sets, cross-connection data transfer and compare/sync, Excel / CSV import & export, visualized execution plans, ER diagrams, scheduled backups, SQL stress testing with p50–p99 latency percentiles, a 15-rule SQL review engine, Kafka message browsing with monitoring & alerts, a bilingual UI (Traditional Chinese / English), a built-in AI assistant (natural-language SQL, AI review and tuning advice) and the dbk CLI. Free and open source (MIT), with installers for Windows, macOS and Linux. - [VS Code Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/super-mermaid): Super Mermaid is a VS Code extension for beautiful Mermaid diagrams out of the box: auto-colored live preview, mouse pan & zoom, high-res PNG / SVG export, 21 templates and multiple themes. Free and open source (MIT). - [React Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-super-mermaid): react-super-mermaid is an open-source React component library: render beautiful Mermaid diagrams with a single , with built-in colorful / sketch themes, pan & zoom, in-diagram search, and high-res SVG / PNG export. Lightweight, SSR-safe, fully typed. Free and open source (MIT). - [Jira / Confluence Super Mermaid](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/jira-super-mermaid): An Atlassian Forge app: write Mermaid syntax directly inside a Jira issue or a Confluence page and get flowcharts, sequence diagrams, state machines and Gantt charts. 11 diagram types, SVG / PNG export, light and dark themes, full CJK support. Runs on Atlassian: your diagrams live in your own site and the app calls no third-party service. Free, coming soon to the Atlassian Marketplace. - [Mermaid Live Preview](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/mermaid-preview): Write Mermaid in your browser, see it render instantly, and share the whole diagram as a single link. No sign-up, nothing uploaded to a server, and mermaid.live share links work as-is. - [React Intl Phone Number](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/react-intl-phone-number): react-intl-phone-number is an open-source React component: framework-agnostic and antd-free, with E.164 in/out, a searchable flag / country-code dropdown, configurable validation levels (strict / mobile-strict / loose), themeable CSS, and i18n — phone logic powered by google-libphonenumber. Lightweight and fully typed. Free and open source (MIT). - [Uptime Kuma Cluster](https://blog.markkulab.net/en/tools/uptime-kuma-cluster): Turn single-node Uptime Kuma into a highly available cluster: OpenResty + Lua smart load balancing, shared MariaDB state, health checks and automatic failover, plus cluster-management REST APIs. One Docker Compose command to start. 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