* Pick an editor and stick with it. If it's EMACS, learn enough keybindings to be useful and learn elisp. Go through the phase where you run gnus for email and erc and all those silly add-ons. Get your .emacs up to 50-100k. Use that for a few years then throw it all away.

Look for force multipliers/secret weapons:

* Use an IDE. Yes, this contradicts the first point, but an IDE with intelligent context-based autocomplete (MSVC, IDEA, etc.), inline API references, and an inline debugger.

* Learn how to use a debugger. It's programming from the opposite direction: partition the problem space and drill down.

* Learn how to use a profiler.

* Learn your shell and those weird little commands like seq, find, awk, sed, perl -p -i -e, cut, tr, etc, and bash string manipulation.

* Scripting language!

Non-programming, work related hacks:

* Dress well. You'll be taken a lot more seriously if you have a well-tailored suit coat/sportcoat/etc. Even over jeans and without a tie. Watch what happens when you get on an airplane with a nice sportcoat. Make sure you understand accessories, too. Doc Martens don't go with "business casual," nor do white gym socks.

* Outline what you're writing. Whip up a quick outline then flesh it out. You'll save yourself revisions and write an organized email/document/paper first time through. I can write more in 30-90 minutes than most people can in two days.

* Master your grammar and spelling. Don't screw it up and you won't have to proofread. Learning two or three other languages (at least one romance language) will make this much easier.

* This has been said all over the place on HN, but be expensive. Their perception is your reality.

* Always have a point of view when walking into a discussion. If you need your outcome, keep feeding everyone until they come around to your way of thinking. Eventually you'll overcome everyone else's objections.

* Document presentation style is very powerful. Learn to use LaTeX with custom fonts (this ties nicely into outlining), or even Sweave to include R calculations, print it out on thick stock, and put it in a folder. I swear clay-coated 400dpi NeXTLaser output fom FrameMaker got me a +0.5 on every paper I wrote. Be consistent with this so people recognize your "brand". It makes it very difficult for people to sell your ideas as their own.

* Know a little about a lot. You never know when you'll have a chance to talk about Croatia when you're in the elevator with the CEO.

* Master Google-fu. It's amazing how many people don't know how to search effectively. If you can do it quickly enough, you'll appear to know everything. Email comes in at 10:04, you see it at 10:05, you reply with an answer by 10:10, and you're a wizard.

Home/life hacks:

* You can make whatever you want with wood, metal, acrylic, fabric, drywall with a jigsaw, dremel, table saw, heat gun, welder, cutting torch, sewing machine, etc. It's all hackable and doesn't require a lot of training. Your city probably has a coop with classes, or you can enroll at a community/junior college and get access to all kinds of crazy gear. Or you can tear something apart and see how it's made, then wing it.

* Buy clamps. C-clamps, vise grips, spring clamps, etc.

* Buy a globe and spend time just eyeballing it, spinning it around in your hands. Geography will imprint itself in your head.

* Always have something to read. Use any downtime to read it.

* Keep food stashed in your car, desk, etc. A Luna/Clif/Power Bar will get you through that low blood sugar phase, or more importantly, get your partner through it when they're cranky and they have no idea how close they are to being left in a ditch by the side of the road.

* Put your stuff away and keep your place clean. Hire a housekeeper to do this for extra points.

* Either have someone wash and iron your shirts (a couple bucks a shirt) or find a really good non-iron shirt (Brooks Brothers makes some that work really well). Ironing your own shirts is a waste of your life. Make sure they fit.

* Get exercise, especially cardio. Strength training isn't bad, either, but cardio will make you feel good all day.

* Learn to fight, or at least to defend yourself. Never be afraid of physical intimidation. The pain from just about any fight-related injury will go away in a day or two, and you'll heal not long after. Get that into your head and you'll come across as one of the people bullies should avoid.

* Always be creating something. I have two or three projects in some stage of completion. They can be pointless (a coat for your dog?) but it gives you something to focus on and get tangible progress.

* Compound interest. Friend AND enemy.

* Realize that everyone worthwhile has one or two peccadillos. Don't get hung up on them as long as the rest of the package is excellent.

* Daydream. With a piece of paper and pencil or pen nearby.

* Don't type too much on a frickin' community forum. You look like someone who has nothing better to do at 6am on a Sunday morning. (Oh yeah, DST...I wondered how it got so late.)