Just got back from Washington, DC. My first time, and I took my 13-year-old son.

Everywhere you look, there’s a well-known monolith, monument, or memorial. Though not towering above the city, the Jefferson Memorial is nevertheless spectacular:

It was inspired by the University of Virginia’s rotunda, which Jefferson himself designed. Of course, the third president (and Hamilton star) was influenced by the Pantheon in Rome.

Jefferson was a deep thinker and a voracious reader. It’s no surprise that he pulled inspiration from all over. In fact, it seems like he never adopted another’s wisdom wholesale. He’d take the parts he liked and leave the parts he didn’t.

Perhaps his most famous work, the Declaration of Independence, was based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason. Jefferson kept the “natural rights” in his draft and left the rest for James Madison’s Bill of Rights.

Jefferson took a razor, literally, to various Bibles to compile what is now known as the Jefferson Bible:

As he read commonplace books, as he called them, he’d routinely copy his favorite passages by hand, creating his own personal Bartlett’s before John Bartlett was even born.

The wisdom of Thomas Jefferson, it turns out, is the wisdom of many, many others.

And so it is for many things, including the ways you engage with developers. There’s not a single playbook that you grab off a shelf. Even ​my developer marketing book​ is more philosophy than activity.

That’s why you’ll often see me sharing examples from many different dev tools, APIs, and technical products. There’s something to take away from anyone, even if it’s something you know you want to avoid.

Don’t be afraid to get out your razor and go TJ on that “best practice.” Make it your own. Fit it to your developer audience. Create the “You Bible.”