HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS AS A DEVELOPER 1.

As a developer, your career is a "never ending learning process". You know what i mean by that and if no, let's dive in a little.
Learning a programming language is like learning a language, like English language as an example. When we started learning it, we were never fluent until more practices(talking), reading and all that were done and till now we still learn new things(words) from English language.

So, also as a developer we are learning a language that is spoken and understood by the computer, we need to keep on learning to be conversant and fluent with the language and this can be achieved only by never stopping to learn.
The world we live in also made it compulsory at some points to keep learning due to the rapid evolvement of technologies, it is never enough to learn something once and use for the rest of our life. Learning daily should be the mindset of a developer.

So, how can we stay updated in such a fast paced world;

• FIRSTLY, WE NEED PASSION AND CURIOSITY; This is so vital in our world beyond the programming field, this is needed for success and growth in anything that is needed to be done. If anyone ask me, what keeps you going? I will reply by saying passion, without this nothing can be done or anything done will be a waste. This will keep you going, to experiment and look forward to learning without a lot of struggle but a ton of effort.

Passion will be very difficult if not possible to be cultivated, this really deals with what dwells in you(what you love doing daily what you find yourself doing naturally without being forced or compelled to do so).
So your best bet is to keep looking for what makes you tick, and when you find it, don't let go.

Curiosity makes you want to know more and learn vastly even beyond expectations, let me put it like this "hunger to learn".
All you need is something to spark your curiosity and interest, without stress you will find yourself learning more than your intention! Just start and see how far you go.
Never venture into anything you have no passion for, always make sure to love what you do, this will prevent every kind of blame and excuse for venturing into what you do or what you are doing.

• MAKE AN HABIT TO READ ONCE A WEEK; Using our example again, while learning English language you needed to read books, if not textbooks, novels and so on. So, speaking(practicing) and reading made us know English more better and faster. So also, being a programmer is beyond coding.

A good programmer is a good reader, I know of a mobile application developer who made a full live design model of an application yet to be made by reading a particular documentation and that was his best work as at then. You have to learn practically and theoretically, without this you can be the best version of yourself.
Generally speaking books, has the power to recall things forgotten easily. You can not read a book once at a time it can be very frustrating, you need to take it in bit by bit. Read books based on your field. You can also read the documentations of the language you are learning or you have learnt.

Also, you can devote time to some kind of report, weekly summary, or even subscribe to a newsletter or receive mails that delivers development news and updates.

• EXPERIMENT ON YOUR OWN; Referring back to our major example, after attending English classes or lectures and even reading books, you experiment what you have been taught by talking in that same English language and this is part of what will make you fluent, it is just a matter of time invested.
  It is not enough to watch tutorials, take online courses or even read books and also do not do copy and paste, you need to work it out, what ever being taught and never practiced is a waste.
  If you were taught A, try B, if possible try it to Z, that is what we call learning to perfection, go beyond what you have been taught that makes you outstanding.
  Let me tell you a little secret, it will be very "hard" to do that but "passion and curiosity" will be the factor to the die-hard consistency*. You need to try them and actually get into some problems, because solving them will take you to the next level.
  Learn techniques not tools, this will bring about progress, success and creativity.

• SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE; There's a saying: you only understand a subject well enough when you can teach it properly. It doesn't have to be a full course, but sharing your findings verbally or on the internet can push you to learn them better and become an expert.
  The more you teach the more your knowledge increases. While you try in sharing your knowledge, if not up to standard people will contribute to that and that is a journey leading to progress and perfection.
  Contributing to an open source also helps in the development of skills, using version controls, for example committing to GitHub and other open source communities like Sakai and the rest also helps.

After learning a language and not brushing it up regularly we will tend to forget somethings, so teaching others do refresh our memories.

In a bit, the second part would be published and it promises to be more greater than this... Just be on the look out 👁.

The second part of this blog ;has been published HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS AS A DEVELOPER 2.. Check it out to have a full understanding of what is been said here. Looking forward to seeing you have a balanced programming diet.

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