5 tips to become a better developer
In some cases, the problem is not in your current skills or even in your habits, but in how you see things in life.
Sometimes, we can feel as if our professional life is completely stagnant, and that feeling is boring because you know your potential to be a great developer.
However, in some cases, the problem is not in your current skills or even in your habits, but in how you see things in life. In this article, I will show you five tips that would help me a few years ago. I think they may help you now too.
1) Accept where you are now 🏃🏻♂️
When I started programming I was very curious and wanted to discover everything about the entire world I was walking on for the first time, to create my applications, and to become a true professional. Although being curious is essential to learn anything, that feeling made me get discouraged as I learned new things, because the only thought in my mind was: "Wow... I'll never be like that guy or create something so cool because I don't know anything about nothing!"
Those thoughts made me stop programming for some months. Fortunately, I backed to the programming world after some time, because I was missing that feeling of making magic with my code.
When I started programming again, I decided to accept the place where I was in and to learn and improve my skills step by step. The result: it worked for me! Nowadays I give myself the time I need to go deep into a new topic and I feel free to admit myself the ignorance I have to replace by knowledge! 😅
2) Let go of your prejudices 👋🏻
Judging a book by its cover can be a hindrance to growing as a developer of anything you want to develop.
When I was a beginner, part of my ignorance was due to my hate from some languages and tools. And all my hate was based on absolutely nothing! 🤷🏻♂️ I did not like working with databases, command-line tools, and frameworks that I simply did not understand until I give them a chance.
Once I learned how to use the things I mentioned above I started to love them and I could see how they make it easier to work on the things that were harder for me to do before.
3) Do not get stuck in just one thing 🕸
Learning a new feature is very cool - we cannot deny it. But once you learned something, why not trying something new?
A serious problem for a developer career is focusing always on the same language, tool, program, or way to do things. For example, many programmers compare the advantages of using some language over another, disregarding more than their personal preferences for that language.
The third tip is: try different ways of doing the same thing and choose one at the end of your tests. Do not base your decision on prejudices or just personal preferences, but on the advantages that each tool allows you to enjoy.
4) Challenge yourself 💪🏻
There are some situations that make us feel like we were not improving our skills and not becoming better developers. It can occur after a long time working at a company and doing practically the same thing every day, for example.
But the option of not evolving is only yours. And a good way to improve your knowledge and to grow as a developer is by challenging yourself.
You can create personal projects to learn new concepts and improve your skills. If you do not have any idea of what to do, there is no problem with using good challenges made by other developers. You can find amazing ideas in some Github repositories.
If you would like to read an article about challenges you can try, let me know in the comments 😉
5) Talk to other developers 🤝
There are many ways of sharing experiences, doubts, and helping other developers. You can write articles like this, answer questions in forums like StackOverflow, post informative content on social networks, and more. As you interact more with other developers they will interact more with you too.
Sharing knowledge is a good way to remember yourself how amazing you are and how networking is essential for getting up to date with your niche!
Conclusion
In summary:
- accept where you are now 🏃🏻♂️
- let go of your prejudices 👋🏻
- do not get stuck in just one thing 🕸
- challenge yourself 💪🏻
- talk to other developers 🤝
May the tips above be useful for the growth of your career and for you to feel more satisfied with your study and work.
Feel free to share your tips and experiences too! 😜
