Becoming a better developer.

Your complete guide to get started with development.

May 16, 2021

Welcome to yet another edition of MichiSpotlight. I know it’s been a long time since I last published a new edition since I took a week-long break to give myself time to prepare for my technical interviews. If you’re a beginner in programming or trying to become a better developer, I suggest you bookmark this one.

Today we will talk a bit about how you can become a better student developer. The main focus of this newsletter would be on communities and having the right motivation to get started.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

We’re back with the polls on LinkedIn!

So last week, using a discussion thread, I sent out a poll on LinkedIn and Twitter to understand how to streamline my content.

Most of you were interested in learning about all of the above but the one thing that piqued everyone’s interest was the “Project Ideas + Implementation” option. So, I have planned a whole series focussed on building projects where we will seek advice from people who have built meaningful stuff in the past and understand efficient techniques for implementation.

But I believe that before we get started with project building, it’s good to understand some key aspects of being a good developer. Today we would explore them briefly:

Developing the right mindset.
Choosing the right technologies to get started.
Collaborating and getting inspired by others.

Developing the right mindset

1) Ask yourself why you want to become a developer?
~> Is it the improved job prospects?
~> Is it because you can innovate with the plethora of technologies at your disposal?
~> ...or any other reason?

2) Depending on the answer to the previous question, you need to take your first few steps before you start thinking about everything that is out there and get utterly overwhelmed.

I would suggest starting with the basic principles of computer science which are well explained in CS50 by Harvard University.

An important quality as a beginner should be not to compare yourself with those who are already accomplished. Instead, take inspiration from them.

3) Bear in mind that when you start, things would be hard, and there would be times where you’d want to give up or feel like you’re not cut out to be a developer. Believe me; every developer has gone through that phase at least once in their life.

So don’t let yourself surrender to such thoughts.

Never underestimate yourself just because things are hard. As long as you’re consistent, you’ll power through.

Choosing the right technology to get started

Beginners are usually the most confused about which programming languages to use. Let me let you in on a secret: Programming languages don’t matter much. Their applications in different domains matter more.

So you see, it is crucial to understand the “why you want to be a developer?” question for you to choose a suitable technology stack to start learning.

Let me assume a few cases:

1) If you want to do web development: JavaScript is probably a smart choice, to begin with.

2) If you’re into research— a better option would be to learn python or R or Julia since most of the research happening is in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which uses these languages extensively.

3) If you’re interested in writing scripts in DevOps — bash, python, go, or ruby, any one of these could be a good choice.

You can find the most suitable tech stack for you to get started according to a particular domain with one google search.

You can also try something like this:

1) If your goal is to get development internships—learn mobile application development (you can go for native android or iOS or cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native).

2) If you want to do internships in both mobile and web, you can learn React.js And then move on to react-native.

3) If you’d rather do an internship at a FAANG company— Learning Java or CPP would be your best bet.

Collaborating and getting inspired by others

This is the most important section of today’s edition. Tread carefully.

The kind of stuff you learn from a tech community is a gazillion times more than your regular “self-study.” It is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to be a part of a few communities.

Things that you need to keep in mind while joining any tech community:

1) Be kind and helpful to everyone.

2) Now, as a beginner, you can help other people by asking your doubts in public channels instead of pestering the community managers on DMs. Someone might have the same doubts as you, but they might be shy to get them cleared publically.

3) Look for inspiration, not comparison. Never compare yourself with people who have been a part of communities for a long time or have many projects under their belt. They even might be the same age as you or even younger. Focus on your own growth.

4) The biggest mistake one can make as a beginner is to imitate the journey of brilliant coders in the community. Not everyone is the same, so it’s better to figure out your own path with the community's help instead of blindly following someone. Focus on your goal and the “Why?” that you identified as the first step to becoming a better developer.

5) Try to find people to collaborate with —either for hackathons or to study a concept or learn Data Structures and Algorithms or pair programming sessions. It would help you be more accountable.

6) Frequently attend events organized by the community members. Trust me; they put in a lot of effort to help you gain insights from experienced developers.

Here are a few communities you can join

Discover more global communities on Discord at this link: https://discord.com/guild-discovery

If you’re aware of more communities, feel free to promote them in the comments.

MichiSpotlight: The YouTube Channel + Podcast thingy

So, I’ve been told by many people to explore other forms of content creation as well, apart from the newsletter, since many lazy bees would rather watch a 5 min video or a 10 min podcast than read a 4 min long newsletter xD.

After doing a LinkedIn poll, I ended up going for option 4: