It took me 10+ years to realize what I’m sharing here in just 8 minutes. Skip a decade of mistakes
and learn the vital life lessons that changed everything.
Top 5 programming lessons I Wish Someone Told Me Before Learning to Code (After 13+ Years as a Developer)
If I look back on the horse of 2012, I wish I had been taught this in Lassie. If that were the case, my years of service would have been wasted and wasted effort.
If you are also stuck, overworked, or wondering whether you are cut out for programming, then these people are just for you. My name is Owais. I have more than 13 years of experience as a professional programmer, and I have taught hundreds of businesses how to code properly and the term that is in the water is reversed.
All this comes from real experience. There is no book theory, so let’s get started.
You Don’t Need to Know Everything
When I started, I thought that Rails developers had the entire programming language figured out. I used to match them to wake up in the morning, grab a board, and write JavaScript without thinking for a moment. School Alert. No one can do that. Think about learning to cook. You can memorize all the recipes in the world. You only learn the basics like how to cut vegetables, how to add spices, and how to avoid getting stuck in the kitchen. Recording is also exactly the same.
.It’s not about keeping every detail; it’s about understanding the pattern. In the beginning, I used to feel embarrassed when I used to search on Mehboob, “Hey, how to extract loss atoms?” Even today, I sometimes look this up, and developers who have more experience than me do the same. Being a good developer is not about perfect recall. It means that you should be able to connect the answers, think through the problem, and be calm when things break. If you’re searching for basic syntax, Congratulation you are on a right track.
Learn How to Learn Programming
Most beginners don’t learn this before learning how to code.
I knew very badly on Tutorial Trap. I used to watch one video after another and I thought I was doing post-production work, but as soon as I sat down to make something by myself, I would freeze. It was just like someone teaching you how to ride a bicycle on YouTube. After watching the video, you thought you were ready, but when you pedal yourself, you fall straight down.
It is a language that you can’t create by just listening. You have to speak. Your fingers should be on the keyboard. Everything for me was the change when I switched from pure perception to creation. Instead of watching someone else make an app, I started making my own app, no matter how bad the results or messages were in the beginning.
There is a simple rule that I wish I had followed from day one. If you are watching a one-hour tutorial, then at least four hours of building your own board without a tutorial can make your coding better and improve. Stuff gets done, things get done, and then they learn the ropes in that struggle.
Perfection Is a Trap
In the beginning, I once wasted three hours just naming a single valuable. I was thinking on screen whether to write data or write them or give it some other long name because I thought that every line should be perfect.
Perfection is a lie. No one writes flawless code. Senior developers also shift code that breaks. The only difference is that they fix it quickly. Think about it if you are learning to paint, but you are not touching the canvas because you are afraid that the first stroke will not be a masterpiece. It will not be and it should not be a masterpiece.
When I stopped chasing clean and elegant code and started shifting the actual code, everything changed. Projects have started to finish. It became a struggle. And over time and automatically it got better because I gave myself permission to make mistakes. Done is better than perfect. The next code that works teaches you much more than the beautiful code that never leaves your laptop.
Stop polishing, start building.
You will never feel ready, start-anyway
The open ready filling will never come, no matter what the project or client handling is. For a few years, I have been waiting for the Rails Developer to fill, which never came. Even today, I feel scared when I touch the production code.
Don’t wait to get fit to go to the gym, sometimes you get fit. Coding confidence will also come from scrolling, not from coding. My first freelance project was a terrifying for me, but I said yes and delivered it with the help of Google. That decision changed my life. You are ready. Just trust yourself a little. Don’t wait for confidence, just start working.
Start messy, Start scared, just start.
