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Pasca Vlad
Pasca Vlad

Posted on • Originally published at blog.vladpasca5.com

5 things you can do to improve as a developer

If you found value in this thread you will most likely enjoy my tweets too so make sure you follow me on Twitter for more information about web development and how to improve as a developer. This article was first published on my Blog

All developers want to get better

But doing this can be hard. Especially in the beginning...

Here are 5 things you can do to improve as a developer

1. Read other's code

This was really important for me in the beginning, especially when I was struggling with some concepts

Just think about this:

If you never read other developer's code, you'll always write the exact same code

And you have no idea if that is good or not

But what can you do about it?

  1. Choose a project you want to work on
  2. Build it yourself
  3. After you finished it go on GitHub and search for similar projects and read that code
  4. Improve your own code
  5. Repeat

2. Use platform like Codewars or Leetcode

I already talked about this a few times in the past too, but it's never too much

I use both of these platforms for almost 6 months every day and I think it's one of the best things I did as a developer

But, here is the thing...

Don't use them as everyone does it

Use them just to learn the language. Don't focus on creating the fastest solution

Code on your own and focus on learning rather than on the score

3. Join a community

I wasn't that consistent with coding until I joined Tech Twitter

That was about one year ago and since then I have learned a lot (and I also formed the habit of coding every day)

Don't overthink this. Just create a Twitter and start documenting

You could also engage with other people...

But that helps only if you want to grow an audience on Twitter (which I recommend doing too)

And if you want to do that too, here is a great course that can help you get started - https://gumroad.com/a/886314099

4. Be consistent

I know that you hear this a lot but it's really important

I started coding in 2019 but I wasn't consistent until the end of 2020

Since I started being more consistent I learned 10x more than before

But why do you want to be consistent in the first place?

Well coding is something new for your brain

And if you want it to understand how to code you need to expose it to code a little bit every day

Yes! Every day for as little as possible

Trust me, this will make a huge difference in your career as a developer

5. Contribute to open source

Maybe you are afraid to work on your projects right now

I understand that. I've been there too

But building projects is the key to learning how to code

So how to go about that?

You contribute to open source projects

Just find an open-source project on GitHub and start working on it

I guarantee that your skills will skyrocket in less 3 months

TL;DR

  1. Read other's code
  2. Use platform like Codewars or Leetcode
  3. Join a community
  4. Be consistent
  5. Contribute to open source

I hope found this useful and if you did please let me know. If you have any questions feel free to DM me on Twitter.

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