Two Recommendations for Code Newbies

Two Recommendations for Code Newbies

Just two things? Yes.

Table of contents

Focus

I don't know much about you but during my beginner phase, I did many things. I tried out Go Lang, Rust, Python, JavaScript, and Solidity. Also, I dabbled in a lot of Bash and C. This isn't bad if you consider I was experimenting to know what suited me but I'd be lying if I failed to mention that a lot of what I experimented on was a result of the shiny object syndrome.

The shiny object syndrome is when you focus on a seemingly new and fashionable idea, regardless of how valuable or helpful it may ultimately be. In the short term, it seems to be something worth focusing one's attention upon, but in the long run, you'll realise that all your doing is chasing squirrels.

The con of this is, that I wasted a lot of time trying out new technologies that I could have been better spent focusing on one technology and mastering it. It's not that I wasn't told that mastering one technology is better but the shiny object was irresistible. It's kind of like when Jake Spidermonkey gets hold of the doorknob in the cartoon show, "My Gym Partner's a Monkey", and uses it to terrorise the whole school but in my case, it was just me and the shiny object.

Don't get it, watch this video for context:

I do not mean you shouldn't try out shiny objects. This may even be a reason for your growth. If you can't help yourself it's okay, but always FOCUS on your original goal.

RTFM

RTFM is an acronym for the words, Read The F@kin Manual, and I cannot stress how important this is.

If you want to learn Python, make sure you read the Python documentation. If you want to master React, make sure you read the documentation. If you want to become a C guru, read The C Programming Language book.

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Focus on your original goal && RTFM, please.