1% of anything is often better than 0%, especially if it's the 1% you didn't build, finance, test, design, support or manage. Find the best 1% and surround yourself with people who stick by this principle. Worry about building and doing things instead of talking about doing things. Avoid paperwork for the sake of doing paperwork. Understand the ground rules and first principles, and yet do what works best for you. Do.

It's not your project. It's not about you, it says nothing about you, and the project or the work does not identify you. It's your employer's project, and it's the client's project. You have no stake in the matter. Zero. None. You are a disposable replaceable expiring resource. All other verbiage, titles, accolades, and noise around this very thing are purely marketing hype to sell you more than you are professional, per your contract, perceived; do not take things personally; don't let it get to you. It means nothing, and it's rarely ever good for you and your mental health.

When you attend client calls and working sessions, learn to read the room (See #4). No lengthy personal introductions. Do not speak unless you must talk. MUST. Never interrupt anyone. Very rude. Very. Prepare to be interrupted many times. Learn to live with it. Offer opinions and suggestions only when asked. Your advice is worth something; do not offer it for free. Do not offer unsolicited advice, especially when the collective minds in the meeting/room have decided in favor of a direction. Whether you ultimately agree with that choice is irrelevant; See #2.

Learn to read the room: are you hired to act the part of a "jira assassin", do the work no questions asked, or are you brought onto the project to consult and advise? Do the people in the room value conversation, dialog, mutual collaboration, and respect? Do they want to hand you a list of tickets and tasks and have you complete them with no remorse and conscience? Do they consider the project "their baby"? Have they already made up their mind about what the project is and how it should be executed? Read the room. Set your expectations.

99% of all meetings you attend are just noise. Complete waste of time. Stay on mute, and do something productive in the meantime. Unless it's some kind of working session focused on solving a particular problem, almost all meetings can be replaced with a 4-liner email.

Deliver, when/if you promise. Deliver on time and never hold onto the ball longer than you must. A perfect status update is almost always one where you are waiting for others to do/verify something.

A successful, productive, and healthy career is almost always the direct result of sustaining meaningful, two-way healthy relationships between you and your client/employer based on mutual respect and level expectations. That is, do not get involved in projects that are only good/exciting for you and not for your employer or client. This is the worst form of job security. Vice versa, do not engage in projects or ideas that are to only benefit your employer in every which way and yet do absolutely nothing for you, your professional career, or your mental health.

Learn to let go; drop the ball. Delete emails and let some go unanswered. Take your time. Wait. Delayed gratification. Stick by your SLAs, and do not respond to everything immediately. Nothing is ever as urgent as you perceive or as others might have you believe. Except for the laws of physics. Or a pregnancy. If you are expected to respond to an issue in 30 minutes, wait for 29 minutes. See #2. See #10.

A thorough, well-written carefully thought-out spellcheck-passing email is almost always better than a half-hazard distracting rigged-with-spelling-errors instant message. Related, find an assigned time slot during your work day or week, and respond to emails only then. The time block between 4-5 pm seems best before you close up and go home.

Your behavior, reactions, and demeanor train others to treat you the same. If you don't want people to message you during weekends, stop responding to things outside work hours. If you want people to be thorough and clear in their interactions with you and respect your time, do not respond to instant messages that show up with a "Hi. You there?" and leave, unless it's HR and you're in the middle of some kind of lawsuit. Learn to prioritize.

Cliche: there are no stupid questions. People, including you, learn differently. Understand differently. Process differently. Take your time and remain patient. Listen. Ask questions, then listen again. Offer examples, demos, diagrams, allegories, analogies, stories and parables to help your audience learn what's in your head. They don't live there, and cannot read your mind. Repeat. As many times as necessary, especially so if you are paid by the hour.

Remember your job description and the tasks expected of your as-defined-contractually title. Do not think, do, stress, engage, or deliver more than necessary, and certainly, no more than the number of zeros on your paycheck indicate. Exactness. Be precise. It does not matter if you think the project is wrong, the idea is correct, the direction is wrong, the execution is great, etc. Whatever. It's not your project. See #2.

Teach people that decisions have consequences and that as adults with advanced degrees, sophisticated training, and reasonable upbringing we all must recognize those consequences. That includes decisions that might affect the timeline, schedule, budget, resource retention, maintenance, mental health, etc. Offer options, not decisions. Cheesecake Factory style; large menu of choices, customer decides. If you repeatedly offer consequences that are initially accepted, then ignored and yet you are still expected to deliver and stick with the original plan, it's time for you to leave. In such patterns, the working conditions and project management are often toxic.

All things are possible. Everything. Anything. It just takes unlimited time, money and resources. That's all. The only rules are those dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation. Simple is often not easy.

Be very very careful when you talk to, interact with or exchange information with people who refer to certain projects, ideas and codebases as their "baby". Make an effort to stay away. Learn to let go. See #8.