Writing software is a practical, experience-based skill like playing tennis, riding a bike or playing music. You get better by practicing. Like those other skills, it matters how you practice. This topic is all about how to practice and improve at writing software.
When we talk about practice, what makes good practice? How should we practice to get the best results? The answers are simple, but not always easy.
Are you practicing your coding? Here are a couple of ways to get better, faster.
From fresh boot-camp grads to twenty-year veteran coders, somehow nearly everybody is afraid of what they call 'the computer science thing.' Let's talk about why you, specifically, shouldn't be.
Should you do the same exercise repeatedly? Yes. Here's why.
Comedians do some of the most intense practice and skill-building of any profession. Here's what you can learn about coding practice from Steve Martin.
Sometime your big obstacle in practice is the fear of doing it wrong. Here's what to do about that.
The hard part of mastering a skill is putting in consistent work, and making the commitment to do it. Let's talk about how to that. And why you should hate Matt Bird with a burning passion.
If you try to sit down to practice, and instead wind up doing useful tasks, is that a problem? It can be. Here I answer a reader letter about it.
Coding exercises are a thing. You haven't seen me recommend them much. Experienced software developers don't usually do them. Why not? Are some worth doing and others not?
Many folks will tell you to learn the lowest-level languages and libraries, the parts closest to the hardware. They're wrong. Here's why. The blog post is an expanded version of the video.
When you're learning, you should plan to throw away most of the code you write. On purpose. In fact, you should decide to throw it away before you start writing most of it. Let me explain…
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