Taking an idea that I've heard bout and implementing it myself. Say I read about a data structure or algorithm, I would implement it on my own to understand it

Taking an idea that I've heard bout and implementing it myself. Say I read about a data structure or algorithm, I would implement it on my own to understand it more. Perhaps different variations. Lately for me, this has been more on design patterns. I deal with large systems, and I'm always thinking about relationships between different components, so I'll write small < 1,000 line code that represents a complex system while I think of how different parts interact. I stay away from libraries and external dependencies to constrain my thoughts towards the ideas that I'm exploring. This is how I practice in a deliberate manner. The funny thing about it is that if you look at the code I produce it might look a mess, but I'm not practice art of writing clean code at that moment. I already know how to do that.