Book Image

Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

By : Jordan Hudgens
3 (1)
Book Image

Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

3 (1)
By: Jordan Hudgens

Overview of this book

This is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights that you can use to improve your work, and to give advice in your career. The book is split up into three topic areas: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, each containing a wealth of practical advice. Coder Skills contains advice for people starting out, or those who are already working in a programming role but want to improve their skills. It includes such subjects as: how to study and understand complex topics, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages. Freelancer Skills contains advice for developers working as freelancers or with freelancers. It includes such subjects as: knowing when to fire a client, and tips for taking over legacy applications. Career Skills contains advice for building a successful career as a developer. It includes such subjects as: how to improve your programming techniques, and interview guides and developer salary negotiation strategies.
Table of Contents (5 chapters)
4
Index

Chapter 47. How to Learn to Code from Scratch? – A Practical Strategy

Becoming a developer is a rewarding yet challenging task. One of the greatest blocks for people to understand programming is simply having a plan and deciding where to start.

In this chapter, I'm doing to walk through strategies to help you learn how to code from scratch. I've been a developer for a number of years. I taught myself how to code and I've witnessed a wide variety of educational techniques for learning programming over the past decade.

Some of the strategies I've seen are good, others are a waste of time. This chapter contains the strategies that have stood the test of time and will help you launch your coding journey.

Small bites

First and foremost on the list of tips to learn how to code from scratch is the principle of small bites.

I have a friend who trains professional and Olympic athletes for Adidas, named Mark Verstegen. Back when I used to train at his institute, he...