What advice would you give to someone who is trying to teach themselves software development skills? I’m doing that right now, and I’m finding it easy to understand, yet difficult to implement in computer code. I want to move onto more advanced stuff, but I feel that I don’t have enough experience quite yet. What skills/courses would you recommend I take? How did you get better on your coding journey? Any tips to make the process go faster? Thanks in advance!
Practice practice practice, always challenge and improve on your foundational skills. Everything else gets easier. Write code and solve problems, struggle through it in whatever way works for you. There’s not really a shortcut to getting more experience than to put in the work.
It’s especially important to try and do things the “right way” as a learning/growth tool. It will take longer, and you’ll rewrite your code multiple times, but the next time you encounter a similar problem you suddenly know exactly what to do and the constraints around the problem.
Do this often enough and you’ll find yourself having a general idea of how to solve just about any problem you come across, and how to do it elegantly.
I want to double down on this. Struggle through it, and learn to enjoy the struggle.
At its core, this field is all about solving problems. You learn and grow by tackling problems that are “too hard”, and learning / hitting your head against the wall / discovering new techniques until you defeat the problem.
Defeating a problem should feel amazing, and is something that should be celebrated. Be proud of it.
Then, the next time you’re facing a seemingly impossible challenge, think about that payoff, and keep going.
Eventually, impossible problems aren’t dissuading - they simply represent some tools or skills that you don’t have yet, and now you get to go on an adventure to discover them.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to just “learn tools”. Every tool in your toolbox should have some personal project or problem that it has already solved, so that you know how to use it. Don’t buy an oil filter wrench until you have a car that needs an oil change, if you know what I’m saying.