I have learned programming 16 years ago and right now I continue to learn things every day. By the way I improved how I learn. Here, I will teach you how is my process after a many years of programming and learning many things.
For me, there are 3 levels of expertise in the field you want to learn:
- Basic flow and concepts, for this I recomend videos
- Intermediate level, for this I recommend textual tutorials
- Advanced level, I recommend technical documentation and blog posts from experts in the field
Videos 🎥
Videos are really nice when you don’t know how or where to click in the screen. I see video tutorials when I don’t know how to do basic things such as using an IDE or the workflow of an specific tool. In these cases, seeing things in video is insightful.
Textual Tutorials 📚
If you have learned the basics, you should read and follow textual tutorials. The main advantage is that reading tutorials is faster than seeing videos. Also you can copy & paste example code and try it out by yourself.
Technical Documentation and Expert Blog Posts 📎
The best tip for being a better programmer is IMO:
Gain a deeper understanding of the system. André Staltz
After experimenting and applying the knowledge you learned in textual tutorials you can go ahead and read technical documentation that allows you to going deeper in the field.
Also, you should see for expert blogs that helps you with advanced concepts and the best practices. Follow them and constantly search for new articles.
And a bonus step …
Iterate over and over ➿
Once you have an advanced level in a field, starts seeing for specific things or complementary topics you feel uncomfortable with and start seeing videos, read textual tutorials and so on.
There are many amazing knowledge out there and you can learn a lot if you are curious and disciplined. So I ecourage you to start learning something you want right now! A paradise of insights and awesomeness are waiting for you behind your screen.
I would love to read in the comments what is the way you learn, so go ahead and write it!
Thanks for reading :)
Top comments (3)
I would like to add a more practical recommendation:
Apply more or less extreme limits on your setup. Get rid of X. Write your essay on an embedded system. Do everything from your REPL at least one day of the week. Don't open a graphical browser at all during weekends. Delete mutt and write your own parser for the mbox format.
It can seem silly but for learning how to wring the most out of computer systems it is one of the better regimes, and once one starts to accept that the machines are unfinished hacks that needs a lot of work to get decent rather than the shiny gems advertisements and culture make them out to be it will get easier to handle.
This was great. I find myself dreading to read documentation or blog posts sometimes when I want to get deeper knowledge or just learn in general. Only because I just don't like reading about code.
However, I'm a visual and hands on learner. If I can apply some hands on work in the middle of reading my growth will sky rocket. The seniors that I am around at work agree. Very good post!
Excellent! You're great ;).Congratulations!