DEV Community

Cover image for Tips To Help You Become A Better Developer
Christopher Glikpo
Christopher Glikpo

Posted on

Tips To Help You Become A Better Developer

  1. Don't try to program for the sake of programming. Instead, come up with an actual problem you want to solve. Having a problem to solve will immediately give you structure. Do your best to attempt to solve the problem on your own, if you can't accomplish it, then go to the internet and ask for help!

  2. Solve more problems.

  3. Really, you can only improve your problem solving skills by solving problems. The more you do, the better.

  4. Maybe, "Think Like A Programmer" and/or "The Pragmatic Programmer" can help.

  5. I often hear "it's better to do than to read," but I honestly don't think you can substitute one for the other. You really need to do both, since many of the most important concepts can only be understood by reflecting on the studies and experiences of experts. So to me it's sort of a no-brainer: you should be reading if you can't get on your laptop.

  6. Practice. Specifically, deliberate practice.

  7. Personally I'd learn the basics of syntax by just googling some sort of java tutorial. Then move to recoding your own projects into java for practice. Meanwhile ask your company what frameworks and tools they use and start studying up on that, like Spring is a popular web application framework, but don’t know if they use that at least you have a job and should be able to figure out what exactly you need to be comfortable with.

  8. Have you considered asking yourself whether you want to be a maker or a programmer? a maker often needs to program, but a programmer doesn't always want to be a maker?That slight shift in your lens may help clarify how you go about looking for software projects?First make it work, then make it right, then make it fast. In that order. Don't be afraid to throw away code.

  9. Github has a lot of code you can draw inspiration from. Use it's search functionality, you will like it.You don't have to share your code. Github permits private repositories for free. Also you don't even have to create a Github account to search and clone public repositories.learning Git is a good skill to have. You don't need to master it all. Learn the basic philosophy and create/find a cheat sheet with the basic commands and you will be set. You don't have to know git to use most of Github's interface.

  10. You need to throw yourself into something, even if it is "simple".

  11. I would pick a language that is Type Safe: C#, Java, C/C++, etc. Make something like Tic Tac Toe in command-line, maybe port it over to a windows form GUI in C# using visual studio (not visual studio code). This will fortify your knowledge of basic types, learn how to find documentation about built-in functions and member data, and perhaps give you a flow of how you go from nothing to a working tic tac toe game. After that maybe try to think about things you enjoy or basic projects.

12.W3Schools Online Web Tutorials is a great resource. Programming can certainly be self taught.

If you want to learn more about Web Development, feel free to follow me on Youtube!

Top comments (0)