I've been learning Ruby and Rails for about 6 months now. To be honest, I still feel really behind when I see these complex functions on stack overflow. I am willing and able to put as much time and effort into it as I need, so I'm hoping someone would have some advice or words of encouragement. Some people seem to "get it" so much faster.
Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#2Read Mastery by Robert Greene.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#3Some Ruby specific tips:
Go through the last 2 years of Railscasts videos. (purchase a subscription to get all of them; not sure it's taking new signups right now though)
Sign up for RubyTapas. Five minute videos, 3 times a week, but most of them are ninja tips.
CodeSchool - some of the advanced Ruby courses are challenging, and get into some of the minutiae that you don't see in basic Rails apps.
Build stuff! Not fake apps, but apps that do things. Maybe an app to scrape HN and hit you up on SMS when your favorite authors post. An app to schedule volunteer hours for your church or other favorite organization. Etc. The act of building real apps will force you to learn some of the finer points of the language.
Make those apps open source, then connect them up to Code Climate. (free for OSS) Going through the process of increasing your code's GPA will help you improve.
Read Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#4The cold reality is that some people do "get it" faster. Programming is a prime example of activities that reward highly intelligent people.
But I think programming is fair. It's fair in a sense that if you work hard, there will be a notable return of becoming a better programmer. Read more code and write more code. You will get better.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#5The cold reality is that some people do "get it" faster. Programming is a prime example of activities that reward highly intelligent people. But I think programming is fair. It's fair in a sense that if you work hard, there will be a notable return of becoming a better programmer. Read more code and write more code. You will get better.
Let me guess: you consider yourself a highly intelligent person.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#6There are a bunch of books that will help with all programming:
- Code Complete (Steve McConnell)
- Pragmatic Programmer
- Software Craftsmanship by Robert Martin
- Test-driven design by Kent Beck
But the way I have always learned most is working alongside people who were smarter than I am, with more experience, and enough patience to explain stuff that wasn't obvious. If that's not easy in the real world, try contributing to an open source project.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#7Some Ruby specific tips: Go through the last 2 years of Railscasts videos. (purchase a subscription to get all of them; not sure it's taking new signups right now though) Sign up for RubyTapas. Five minute videos, 3 times a week, but most of them are ninja tips. CodeSchool - some of the advanced Ruby courses are challenging, and get into some of the minutiae that you don't see in basic Rails apps. Build stuff! Not fa…
I'm a member- They are taking new signups, just billing for the first month and allowing the other months to be for free until he figures out if he is retiring or not. I will begin codeschool tomorrow. Thank you.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#8Some Ruby specific tips: Go through the last 2 years of Railscasts videos. (purchase a subscription to get all of them; not sure it's taking new signups right now though) Sign up for RubyTapas. Five minute videos, 3 times a week, but most of them are ninja tips. CodeSchool - some of the advanced Ruby courses are challenging, and get into some of the minutiae that you don't see in basic Rails apps. Build stuff! Not fa…
I'm a member- They are taking new signups, just billing for the first month and allowing the other months to be for free until he figures out if he is retiring or not. I will begin codeschool tomorrow. Thank you.
Yeah, I'm a Railscasts member too, and know he extended existing members, but was too lazy to look up what that meant for new subs :-)
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#9Build something hard.
Toy apps teach you how to use libraries and google error messages. Building something will force you to spend time thinking about how not to code yourself into a corner, how to structure your app and how to be efficient. It will also give you an outlet to put all the things you lean in books/railscast etc into practice.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a better programmer?
#10The cold reality is that some people do "get it" faster. Programming is a prime example of activities that reward highly intelligent people. But I think programming is fair. It's fair in a sense that if you work hard, there will be a notable return of becoming a better programmer. Read more code and write more code. You will get better.
Let me guess: you consider yourself a highly intelligent person.
No, I am average.