To Become a Better Programmer, Learn to Become a Better Editor
Say a writer writes a first draft of an essay and thinks to herself, “I’m done! I’m ready for the next essay.” No writer says this! Any…
read this post →Say a writer writes a first draft of an essay and thinks to herself, “I’m done! I’m ready for the next essay.” No writer says this! Any…
read this post →Most programmers want to get better at problem-solving. So they default to repetition. I refer to this approach as the “problem-solving…
read this post →The initial response most programmers have when starting a new problem is to open their editor and begin to code. I used to do this, too…
read this post →When you set out to learn a new topic, you want answers to these questions: What topics should I learn first? What learning tactics should…
read this post →Whether you’re learning your first programming language or your tenth, this article contains the resources to use and the techniques to…
read this post →Most people want to get better at problem-solving, but aren’t sure how to go about it. So they default to what I call the “problem-solving…
read this post →Programmers often mistake a working program for an effective one. Their code could be a nightmare to read and debug. It could take forever…
read this post →The hosts of the Crafting Code podcast raise an interesting question on an episode about deleting code: is code an asset or a liability…
read this post →I was like a fish out of water without my laptop by my side. I needed a new computer battery, so I left my MacBook at the Apple store. I…
read this post →You’ve probably heard of deliberate practice: an intentional and informed type of practice that’s used to enhance performance.(1) It means…
read this post →Programming is a fantastic skill to develop. But, as a self-taught programmer, I’ve found the learning process unnecessarily ambiguous and…
read this post →Something about Julia Child caught my attention. This American author, teacher, and television personality is famous for bringing French…
read this post →There’s so much new and dense technical information coming at you when you begin learning to program. How do you learn and retain it all…
read this post →It's sometimes thought that short, "clever" code is the aim when writing programs. However, shorter isn’t necessarily better. Neither is…
read this post →This is the fourth and last big idea in my series on programming effectively, which is based on my new learning tool, Programmer’s Pyramid…
read this post →This is the third article in a four-part series on programming effectively, which is based on my new learning tool, Programmer’s Pyramid…
read this post →This is the second article in a four-part series on programming effectively, which is based on my new learning tool, Programmer’s Pyramid…
read this post →This is the first article in a four-part series on programming effectively, which is based on my new learning tool, Programmer’s Pyramid…
read this post →You realize that learning technologies, like React and Node, isn’t enough. So you want to enhance your skills and deepen your knowledge by…
read this post →After completing one project, we’re often in a hurry to start a new one. But why the rush? If you complete a quality project, recycle it…
read this post →All of us have them. In any long-term pursuit—getting a PhD, training for a marathon, or learning to program—there are dark days. You know…
read this post →I did something different in 2020, and it's had a profound effect on my programming progress. Instead of detailed quarterly plans, I’ve…
read this post →It’s a familiar story. The code reads like a cryptic puzzle. The program has lines of “dead” code or contains useless comments. Or changes…
read this post →Working from home has become the new normal. Without a commute or office distractions, you should be crushing it every day. Are you? If you…
read this post →Programmers have a need for speed. This seems particularly true of those who are just starting out in the field. They want to learn to…
read this post →“I think you need to read more,” my professor told me bluntly. I’d just shared my idea for an upcoming paper, and he clearly wasn’t thrilled…
read this post →You’re learning to program, and looking for some answers. What skills do you need to develop? What concepts matter most? Which resources are…
read this post →We often think that the best doctors have the most experience. But one study suggests otherwise: the longer doctors have been in practice…
read this post →My recommendation is to apply an approach that I like to call “multiple streams of learning,” or MSL. It means to actively study a field or…
read this post →It’s odd to me. People talk about learning to program like it’s a one-time thing; that it’s something for novices. I don’t see it this way…
read this post →I received an interesting question from a reader recently. He wanted to know how you can tell if you’re making progress as a programmer. It…
read this post →Judging by the title, you may think this article is about the programming content on freeCodeCamp. You’d be partly right. But it’s also…
read this post →Something interesting caught my attention in Cory House’s Pluralsight course, Clean Coding Principles in C#. House makes a strong case…
read this post →Most of us have been given the same advice: to become a better problem solver, you need to solve more problems. But this advice is too…
read this post →Most of us have fallen into this trap. We’re so focused on learning a topic or honing a skill that we don’t touch previously learned…
read this post →“You should improve your variable names,” a programmer told me bluntly after reviewing a program of mine. His comment stopped me in my…
read this post →The field of programming is as wide as it is deep. No matter if you’ve been programming for a month, year, decade, or more, all of us have…
read this post →If you find JavaScript’s arrow function syntax a bit confusing, you’re not alone. It can be tricky to nail down at first. And that’s why I…
read this post →What distinguishes great programmers from good ones? It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with since I began learning to program. I’ve…
read this post →It strikes me as odd. We’ve heard the same messages: Write clean code. Write readable code. Write meaningful code. I agree with these…
read this post →Finding a good programming resource is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It's hard to find and can take a lot of time. I’ve used…
read this post →All programmers have something in common. There’s a lot of programming knowledge to learn and we need a way to learn it effectively. In many…
read this post →Benjamin Franklin was a lot of things, including a scientist, an inventor, writer, and politician. He was also a great learner. In his…
read this post →Many programmers don't get the most from their programming hours. In large part, this is because most workplaces don't emphasize peak…
read this post →It seemed counterintuitive. Standing in Barnes & Noble one winter evening, I paged through a running book titled Run Less, Run Faster…
read this post →There’s a lot to learn as a programmer. And there’s just as much material to remember and recall. You don’t want to relearn SQL because you…
read this post →The meetup had a requirement. About fifteen of us sat around plastic tables and chairs listening to the meetup organizer explain the problem…
read this post →It kept happening. I’d set out to learn a new programming topic and get caught up in the details. Learning something new took forever. I’d…
read this post →On a rainy Monday night in downtown Boston, I sat around a small conference room table with three other programmers. I was at a Python…
read this post →Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL, underscores the importance of discipline in his latest book, “Discipline Equals Freedom.” It’s filled…
read this post →People try kinds of tactics to stay awake during the day. Drinking caffeine in one of its many forms — coffee, energy drinks, or soda — is…
read this post →Society portrays artists as eccentric people, lounging around their studio or office waiting for inspiration to strike. But after reading…
read this post →The workplace is meeting-happy these days. We meet to discuss projects. We meet to create processes. We meet to share daily goals. And we…
read this post →I was intrigued by Jason Fried’s recent post on being a bad manager , so I decided to take the opposite tack. This post is about being a…
read this post →I used to be a to-do list fanatic. Each evening I wrote the things I wanted to accomplish the following day on a pocket-sized notebook pad…
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