This is a great article about the realities of software development, in the form of advice to a newbie programmer. Excerpts:

Documentation: The true use of documentation is to bridge the inevitable gap between what the project is supposed to do and what it actually does. Politically written documentation bridges this gap by appearing to claim the former without actually denying the latter. On close examination, it will be found to say nothing at all.

Ass-covering: The chief difficulty is reaching a satisfactory compromise between ass-covering and not appearing too negative. If you know something is going to fail, make sure you point it out and have a record, but try to present it in a positive way. Say that it is a "major risk", rather than a certain failure. Try to request additional resources or time even when you know they will be denied.

Error messages and logfiles: As well as being later than you expect, the system will be less reliable than you expect. Make sure your debug and logfiles give you plenty of information. As with architecture, make sure that your error messages assign blame appropriately.

Overtime: ...better to do half an hour Monday to Thursday than two hours on Wednesday. It also sounds better to say: "I've worked late four nights this week." No-one will be keeping track that closely anyway.

Woe betide the PHB who gets the author of this article in his team ;-)