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Ask HN: How do you keep improving?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you keep improving?

#91
post #4

1. You need to recognize when you're not learning, for one thing. If it's easy, you're not learning. You need to push yourself into the zone of discomfort, where you feel clumsy and have a hard time. Now you're learning. 2. Find a mentor. Lacking that, find e.g. talk of someone explaining some hard techniques and then try to follow the advice. Even and especially if it feels clumsy at first. (More on those two here:…

I agree with everything you said. What needs to be feared is complacency. If you ever feel that things are going too easily - that's when to be afraid. I will be the first to admit I let many _months_ of complacency pass me by before I identified the signs. All the above advice - forcing yourself into the haze of discomfort, breaks this away and forces you to learn new skills. Learning is often glamorized, but in rea…

I remember back before I knew about variables, when I started learning programming, thinking about a programming problem for whole days, and figured out how to store intermediate computed values in MacOSX text fields and retrieve them later (the values was state for the adventure game I was trying to make), and that allowed me to make a lot more interesting things before, I thought I was so clever; and then I remember the epiphany I got when I finally understood that web page talking about variables; I had been reading it daily for months and had no idea what they were and how they could be applied to my programming, then finally it clicked! What a high! Being able to store values without placing hidden text fields everywhere! I don't think I've been more excited ever again since those summer afternoons, even trying to figure out stuff in shower and in bed... I was 11 or 12 stuck with a Mac at home. I didn't have money to buy my own games and back then it was Apple's dark ages so there were hardly any games anyway; I tried to make my own. Was learning difficult? For sure. Was it uncomfortable? In a way. Was it the best and most exciting experiences in my life? Oh you have no idea. (Ok my marriage to my wife comes a close second; in case she reads this one day.)

Something about childhood experiences makes them a lot more intense...

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep improving?

#92
Join the community and take some classes with https://bradfieldcs.com/ They've got a great set of experienced & knowledgable staff, plus a group of other developers who all care about growing in their careers. Just chatting with the other folks there has been a huge boost in my career.
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