Why You Must Always Be Learning In Tech.
The more you learn the more you grow.
Photo by Danka & Peter on Unsplash
It's been a great year so far on my journey into Web Development and how the web operates.
In 2023, Web Development couldn't be more mature in the list of solutions to problems no matter the language.
As a JavaScript Developer I made my journey on the Frontend, learning a whole host of technologies and then heading deep into Backend technologies like Node.js, Express.js, EJS etc.
This won't be a long post, but one to guide any would-be developer on how to get more comfortable in learning to program.
The key most often is to not get comfortable(yep, throw that idea out), facing new challenges is how you grow your skills and become invaluable no matter where you find yourself.
In that respect, we'll be conversing on a few things you'll likely come across and how to get past them.
Imposter Syndrome
Picture this, you've set up your Redux Store and nothing happens, your application keeps throwing an error, nothing is updating and you're looking all over StackOverflow for a solution.
As a developer, you are expected to perform within a reasonable metric and to have solutions within reasonable timeframes, this can lead to expectation anxiety, self-doubt and even a harsh self-assessment of your skills in light of the different types of challenges you're solving.
My first imposter syndrome moment came when I couldn't reverse a string(something that's not hard to do), laughable now but then it made me reflect on my skills up to that point, which leads me to answer how you get through moments like that, not reversing a string per se but getting solutions to problems and keeping cool when you don't know how to solve a problem.
Push Through
There isn't a way around it(yep, none but sticking to the process), you have to complete the problem by facing it. This can be done in several ways:
Understanding the problem
Being aware of your tools
Solve more problems
Let's have a go at the first method of solving problems.
Understanding The Problem
Why you can't solve a problem could boil down to not understanding it or not knowing why that problem happens, for instance, you're connecting to a database and you're unable to establish a connection, look into the error console, read it and try to make sense of it, if you can't you can always try Googling to see if other people have faced the same problem and how they solved theirs.
Being Aware Of Your Tools
Whatever Programming Language you use comes with a lot of tools to make building things easier, whether you need a timestamp with the date object gotten from the Date Constructor or you need a data structure like a Set that doesn't hold duplicate values to store sensitive unique information, your language and/or framework/library often provides solutions to problems as long as you learn your tools well and know how to work with them.
Solve More Problems
Solve more problems, be it yours or others, this not only provides a solid foundation but establishes the skills that make you invaluable in the first place, "problem-solving".
Whether you join Data Structures and Algorithm Challenge sites like:
It may not even be Data Structures and algorithms, it could be a Facebook group. The more problems you solve the more prepared you are to diving head first into new ways of interacting with your tech stack.
Though keep in mind, the clever solutions you use to solve Algorithms may not be a best practice when working with a team of other developers as different teams have different requirements for their codebase.
Other problems you may face will also require you to break down the problem into solvable chunks, bit by bit till you build your application.
Keep the needle moving and you'll be further than you can imagine, trust the process. Caio. ;)