Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being a few years into my programming career, I'd be really grateful for somebody to help/guide at a higher level than, say, learning language X or pattern Y. It's a bit tough to clearly define, but I think I don't know any developer that is really striving towards mastery on any level, with most colleagues and acquaintances doing the bare minimum to get by.
> with most colleagues and acquaintances doing the bare minimum to get by. The best way to level your skills up fast as a junior developer is to work somewhere where most of your coworkers are skilled and passionate. It sounds like you're not in one of those places (which is normal -- unfortunately most developers aren't). If changing workplaces isn't an option, then your second-best alternative is to get involved wi…
It's rather niche though, and I could probably do it on my own but I don't know what I could learn that would be useful. I would probably keep using the things I already know if no-one more experienced can suggest appropriate tools (kinda related to the top post about over-engineering).
My CS culture is not that great for the moment (working on it) so what should I learn ? Everything moves so fast. It's also related to your argument : how to find open source projects that might interest me and where I could be useful, as I don't even know them in the first place.
I also slowly discover what I would like to work on (mostly enjoying working with data/databases and also algorithms although I'm probably a bit weak there for the moment, but I really enjoyed doing google's hash code this year). Reading other people's experiences helps of course, but it's still difficult to find the right questions I should ask myself, so the answers are even less precise.