Ask HN: 10 years as a developer, how to double down and improve?
4 comments
I've found that diving into a project and figuring out what needs to be done is the best way to get going specially if the project has zero chance of causing damage. Writing a text editor seems live a doable even if you decide to write it in assembler. You need to pick a project, break it down to pieces you can handle and go for it. Your job is to pick a task and decide and learn how to accomplish it. Keep in mind that you need to finish so add a deadline and be consistent. Do not fall into the trap that you can take forever to finish. If you do that,you will fail. Pick a project, copy it if you need to, and start. Keep it simple and add complexity as you move forward. So start and pick a deadline today. Stop thinking about it.
You're right. I think my biggest problem is that I always assume these crazy OSS projects were written because the author has always been this programming genius, when in reality they were just following their interests. For example, I caught myself with the proxy thinking about production scale. Who cares about production?? I just need to get going and build a single-threaded proxy that gets the job done. No need to worry about complexity, it's just for me.
Hard to remember that at times though.
Hard to remember that at times though.
Learn Rust.
It will improve the way you write code even if you are not using it at $WORK.
It will improve the way you write code even if you are not using it at $WORK.
It may be time to finally learn it. I've standardized on Python, Clojure and C# of all languages (Julia for fun) but Rust may help me dive deeper into systems level problems.
I've spent 10 years working as a software engineer now, and I can't help but feel that I'm very shallow in almost everything that I do. I've worked for small early-stage startups, and a FAANG and now am at a midsize corporation. Happy with my job but I want to double down on being a developer.
I want to build impressive things. I want to try my hand at a text editor from scratch. I want to build an HTTPS proxy that works at the byte level, opening sockets and applying encryption. I want to do all these things and whenever I start these projects I realize that my only skill that I have is building applications on top of modern frameworks and libraries.
I have no understanding of the fundamentals, don't know when to reach for more powerful data structures, algorithms, etc. I'd like to have an understanding but I've just never built it.
I've fallen prey in the past to the "shiny new thing" syndrome and now am doubling down on a small set of languages to "Get Stuff Done." How can I double down on being a developer? How do you improve on technical skills 10 years into your career? It's been ages since I've had a mentor to look after me and help me to get better at what I'm doing. What do you all do to keep building relevant skills and keep improving?
I've spent plenty of time improving soft skills as well, but really love the technical side.
Thanks in advance for any help/responses.