Thinking too much in terms of design patterns. Sometimes, it leads to over-engineering. The simplest solution should always be preferred, not one that looks enterprisy and following an established design pattern. Not that design patterns don't have a place or that rookies should not be learning and using them. As a beginer, I concentrated too much on design patterns instead of letting the solution evolve towards one.

I have said my motivations in the question. It's mostly about side projects.

It is very difficult to answer this, but I would go for a role that makes me happy and gives me sense of learning while also providing value.

For me it would be code reading and reviews. I have been realising that reading code on many different projects is a great way to learn and keep up with how others solve problems. Reading the code of the libraries you use also makes you use them better and understand why things work in a certain way. It has been rewarding and I want to do more of it. And as I read more code in many different, it has also been helpful in improving my code review skills.

Sandeep Panda Great! This is my address - GC2BP6UQPWEIMQ2H4WFS5NBQN273JSHVSWN26EYMDXO66UUE3DYZNMQ7 Is it possible for anyone to contribute to a bounty? That would be cool.

I added it after seeing that a bounty was added to my question.

Not sure if right place to ask - when is the XLM payed out? I do see that a question of mine was rewarded, but don't see it in my wallet.

Neither. Delivering value to customers does.

In my experience - pair programming is great for bootstrapping new comers to the team. It can also be a great tool while working on complicated stories where people can pair and solve the problem (the actual pairing can be for say few hours to establish a base for the solution and then split up.) Pair programming need not be about going all in or not doing it. Do it at the right time and right purpose and we can have all the pros of it without the cons. Being dogmatic about always pair programming is one of the reasons why people started hating it.

Start at the lower levels. Teach coding at schools in whatever way you can and make it fun. I once did a robotics coding session with Python as the programming language. The kids loved it, and they had tangible output they could see.