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How to Improve Your Coding Skills

19 points by happy-go-lucky 10y ago

sean_patel 10y ago
TL/DR; Write code everyday and don't break "The Streak".
ad404b8a372f2b9 10y ago
I didn't find this article very insightful. It feels more like a poem than practical advice for beginners. I'd temper point #2, I've found as a beginner I was much too attached to what I had taken so long to learn and I refrained from exploring other languages and paradigms seriously. Once I freed myself from that I became much better at coding overall. Studying computer science has helped me a lot as well, it opens you up to fields and technologies you possibly had no interest in before and forces you to explore them and broaden your perspective.
Raphmedia 10y ago
Go on youtube. Find the MIT computer sciences courses (free!!). Watch them. Seriously. Nothing improved my coding skills more than going over the basics all over again but with a good professor.
- cponeill 10y ago
  This is exactly what I have been doing as well over the past couple of weeks.
  - Raphmedia 10y ago
    Take a look at this amazing repo filled with video courses: https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video-courses https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video-courses
aengusmcphail 10y ago
practice
iAm25626 10y ago
Yes code and code some more but make sure to solve different problems, solve the same problems different way. IMHO that's the more important imply message (Explicit is better than implicit.) It's like running. If you always run the same distance/cadence; at best you keep what you gain; I find that I rarely improve doing the same thing over.
geooooooooobox 10y ago
> Over the years I've stayed with the easiest-to-learn stable IDEs/text editors. Yes, I know there are really powerful tools with arcane commands (Vim, EMACS, etc), but I don't want to have to stop what I'm doing to learn new tools. I want to code, not tinker with desktop tools or arcane text editors Wut? both of those editors make coding so much more easier and the rest of the stuff is just a cop out imo
- cttet 10y ago
  In my view IDEs are much harder to learn... For vim or EMACs, you just need the cheat sheet to start with, but with a IDE, sometimes I have to go to video tutorials in order to figure out a button.
  - geooooooooobox 10y ago
    Seconded

TL/DR; Write code everyday and don't break "The Streak".

I didn't find this article very insightful. It feels more like a poem than practical advice for beginners. I'd temper point #2, I've found as a beginner I was much too attached to what I had taken so long to learn and I refrained from exploring other languages and paradigms seriously. Once I freed myself from that I became much better at coding overall. Studying computer science has helped me a lot as well, it opens you up to fields and technologies you possibly had no interest in before and forces you to explore them and broaden your perspective.

Raphmedia 10y ago

Go on youtube. Find the MIT computer sciences courses (free!!). Watch them. Seriously. Nothing improved my coding skills more than going over the basics all over again but with a good professor.

cponeill 10y ago
This is exactly what I have been doing as well over the past couple of weeks.
- Raphmedia 10y ago
  Take a look at this amazing repo filled with video courses: https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video-courses https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video-courses

aengusmcphail 10y ago

practice

iAm25626 10y ago

Yes code and code some more but make sure to solve different problems, solve the same problems different way. IMHO that's the more important imply message (Explicit is better than implicit.) It's like running. If you always run the same distance/cadence; at best you keep what you gain; I find that I rarely improve doing the same thing over.

geooooooooobox 10y ago

> Over the years I've stayed with the easiest-to-learn stable IDEs/text editors. Yes, I know there are really powerful tools with arcane commands (Vim, EMACS, etc), but I don't want to have to stop what I'm doing to learn new tools. I want to code, not tinker with desktop tools or arcane text editors Wut? both of those editors make coding so much more easier and the rest of the stuff is just a cop out imo

cttet 10y ago
In my view IDEs are much harder to learn... For vim or EMACs, you just need the cheat sheet to start with, but with a IDE, sometimes I have to go to video tutorials in order to figure out a button.
- geooooooooobox 10y ago
  Seconded