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If you'll allow me the arrogance of saying that I'm pretty good in my genres (web-app, mobile, and I'm starting to come into my own in game programming but real

If you'll allow me the arrogance of saying that I'm pretty good in my genres (web-app, mobile, and I'm starting to come into my own in game programming but really I have a shit-ton to learn in these fields I know enough to sound smart but I'm FAR from a genius), I'll say that most of what you are seeing is a bunch of subject matter experts answering questions. For example I might be able to tell you the in depth ins and outs of using RabbitMQ as a messaging queue for async processing in a web application but I know next to nothing about how to write an audio driver for Linux, or the math principles behind the best cryptography algorithms. So to answer your question I'd need to rephrase it a bit and say how do I become really good at a subject. Here's what I did: - I have 15 years of professional experience, sorry I don't think there is any shortcut on this one. 15 years teaches you things and processes that you will never learn in 2. THIS DOES NOT MEAN that all programmers with 15 years are better than anyone less experienced just that there certain things that the years drill into your head that's impossible to give to someone with less experience. - I read A LOT. Like 3-4 technical books a month. Immersing myself in the my area of study helps my think naturally in those techs. - I write a lot of experimental code. - I go to meetups and talk to other good developers - I constantly try to learn something that I think is over my head. Never stop learning and never stop pushing yourself. I'm driven to know everything I possibly can about my areas.

leostatic 12y ago
>I read A LOT. Like 3-4 technical books a month Could you please elaborate on this? As in, what kind of books do you look for? I have developed this feeling that focussed blog posts by experienced programmers teaches more than books. Also, there are way too many self published authors out there. I know it's a good thing in a way but with so many books, it gets tough to figure out which ones are worth your time. In other words, I'm looking for an example like "I wanted to learn x, so looked up and read y". Thanks.
- jaegerpicker 12y ago
  Sure, I tend to target books I see mentioned on twitter. Then I also tend to stick to books by O'Reilly, Pragmatic Programmers, and Manning. I've found there quality of books to be much higher in general to others. Then I tend to try and find books that are written by a blog author or the library/open source project that I like. For instance Chas Emerick is pretty well know in the Clojure circles, has a good blog and a good twitter account, he has also written a book on Clojure for O'reilly so I picked it up. Then I've seen the PragPub book about Web Development in Clojure and I've seen at least 3 other people on twitter mention it positively so that was book number 2 for that month. For number three I took a chance and picked up a self published book, Functional Programming for the Object Oriented Programmer because it covered Clojure and I'm mostly an OO Programmer so it completed my deep dive into Clojure for that month. I don't always dive so deep on a subject but last month was my learn Clojure month :).

leostatic 12y ago

>I read A LOT. Like 3-4 technical books a month Could you please elaborate on this? As in, what kind of books do you look for? I have developed this feeling that focussed blog posts by experienced programmers teaches more than books. Also, there are way too many self published authors out there. I know it's a good thing in a way but with so many books, it gets tough to figure out which ones are worth your time. In other words, I'm looking for an example like "I wanted to learn x, so looked up and read y". Thanks.

jaegerpicker 12y ago
Sure, I tend to target books I see mentioned on twitter. Then I also tend to stick to books by O'Reilly, Pragmatic Programmers, and Manning. I've found there quality of books to be much higher in general to others. Then I tend to try and find books that are written by a blog author or the library/open source project that I like. For instance Chas Emerick is pretty well know in the Clojure circles, has a good blog and a good twitter account, he has also written a book on Clojure for O'reilly so I picked it up. Then I've seen the PragPub book about Web Development in Clojure and I've seen at least 3 other people on twitter mention it positively so that was book number 2 for that month. For number three I took a chance and picked up a self published book, Functional Programming for the Object Oriented Programmer because it covered Clojure and I'm mostly an OO Programmer so it completed my deep dive into Clojure for that month. I don't always dive so deep on a subject but last month was my learn Clojure month :).