Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 72 posts

Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#1

Post by mcjoken »

I consider myself self-taught, no CS degree, took some basic web design courses in college. I've turned that into a career as a largely front-end focused developer for the past 8 years.

Now I've started a family, I'm in my 30s and I'm feeling like I need to keep my knowledge and skills updated. But also have been feeling out of my depth recently, perhaps regretting my lack of solid CS background. But, above all I feel like I haven't been challenging myself enough and I've begun to lose interest.

My question generally is for people who have followed a similar career path, But I'm open to all perspectives.

What approaches or ideas to your self-directed learning have helped you break into more invigorating work.

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#2

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Every five years or so, my wife asks me, "What do you need to learn now for the next 10 years of your career?"

If you're self taught, you can teach yourself the next thing.

You don't have a solid CS background? You can teach yourself that. Go look at, say, the list of MIT courses for a CS degree. You don't have to take the MIT classes. But which of the things do you know, at least to some degree? The ones you don't know, do you feel the lack of any of them? Have they held you back at points in your career so far? Go learn those.

Your work isn't interesting any more? Look around at your company. What work there would be more interesting? What do you need to know to be able to do that work? Go learn that. If things line up just right, you can help out on a project in that area that is short-handed, and get experience on your company's dime. You may have to be able to say "I know a bit about that" first, though, so go learn at least a bit about that.

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#3

Post by dev_0 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #2

Every five years or so, my wife asks me, "What do you need to learn now for the next 10 years of your career?" If you're self taught, you can teach yourself the next thing. You don't have a solid CS background? You can teach yourself that. Go look at, say, the list of MIT courses for a CS degree. You don't have to take the MIT classes. But which of the things do you know, at least to some degree? The ones you don't k…

How do you learn if you don't take exams? I mean how do you know if you understand a concept if you don't have someone assessing your knowledge

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#6

Post by sethrin »

dev_0 wrote: post #3
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #2

Every five years or so, my wife asks me, "What do you need to learn now for the next 10 years of your career?" If you're self taught, you can teach yourself the next thing. You don't have a solid CS background? You can teach yourself that. Go look at, say, the list of MIT courses for a CS degree. You don't have to take the MIT classes. But which of the things do you know, at least to some degree? The ones you don't k…

How do you learn if you don't take exams? I mean how do you know if you understand a concept if you don't have someone assessing your knowledge

Why do you need external validation of what you know? Is a test going to demonstrate that you know something? Is it going to demonstrate that you know what you need to know, or what the person who designed the test thinks you need to know? And all that aside, what use is the test score? Is that something you'd put on a resume?

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#7

Post by kolme »

dev_0 wrote: post #3
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #2

Every five years or so, my wife asks me, "What do you need to learn now for the next 10 years of your career?" If you're self taught, you can teach yourself the next thing. You don't have a solid CS background? You can teach yourself that. Go look at, say, the list of MIT courses for a CS degree. You don't have to take the MIT classes. But which of the things do you know, at least to some degree? The ones you don't k…

How do you learn if you don't take exams? I mean how do you know if you understand a concept if you don't have someone assessing your knowledge

As a self-taught programmer, musician, German-speaker... this question never occurred to me!

If it works, it works, I guess.

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#8

Post by lordnacho »

Do the DS&A stuff. Learn the common data structures and their big-O. Do some Leetcode questions. You quickly discover that there were things you could have done better, and you realize pretty fast that a huge swath of problems are actually solvable with a small number of solutions.

Other one is systems. Maybe less relevant for some people, but it's worth having a deeper model for how the OS works. How does virtual memory work, what does the scheduler do, threading, etc.

Finally perhaps programming languages and compilers. Gives you perspective on how the tools be use are constructed.

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#9

Post by dasil003 »

dev_0 wrote: post #3
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #2

Every five years or so, my wife asks me, "What do you need to learn now for the next 10 years of your career?" If you're self taught, you can teach yourself the next thing. You don't have a solid CS background? You can teach yourself that. Go look at, say, the list of MIT courses for a CS degree. You don't have to take the MIT classes. But which of the things do you know, at least to some degree? The ones you don't k…

How do you learn if you don't take exams? I mean how do you know if you understand a concept if you don't have someone assessing your knowledge

Build things! This solidifies knowledge in a way exams never will.

Re: Ask HN: As a self-taught developer, what are your self-directed learning tips?

#10

Post by aliyeysides »

Back in 2012, I hired a dev shop overseas to build a startup idea I had. I didn't know how to code, how product development worked, and got screwed over in the end with nothing to show for it. After that ordeal, I decided I would teach myself how to code with the goal that someday when I was ready again I could build my startup without having to pay others.

Like you, I started in web development and eventually expanded into full stack because I was lucky enough to really enjoy programming and craved learning more because it made me more confident, ultimately allowing me to shed my imposter syndrome.

Fast forward to today, and I'm still learning new things all the time. I recently learned C/C++ because I wanted to understand what dynamic memory was and how that worked. Whenever I want to learn a new language, I spend some time answering the same leetcode questions in that new language if I can't find something I want to build in it in that moment. I also have a startup where I'm the CTO and have the luxury of deciding what tech we use, how things are built, and it's a great learning experience because I have to understand things on a deep level.

That's just me, but thought I would share.

Post reply on HN