December 4, 2009 โ Do you want to become a great coder? Do you have a passion for computers but not a thorough understanding of them? If so, this post is for you.
There is a saying that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it.
So, to master programming, it might take you 10,000 hours of being actively coding or thinking about coding. That translates to a consistent effort spread out over a number of years.
There is another saying that I just read which inspired me to write this, that says "there is no speed limit".
In that post, Derek Sivers claims that a talented and generous guy named Kimo Williams taught him 2 years worth of music theory in five lessons. I have been learning to program for 2 years, and despite the fact that I've made great progress, my process has been slow and inefficient.
I did not have a Kimo Williams. But now that I know a bit, I'll try and emulate him and help you learn faster by sharing my top 12 lessons.
I'll provide the tips first, then if you're curious, a little bit more history about my own process.
That's it, go get started!
Actually, I'll give you one bonus tip:
Two years ago, in December 2007, I decided to become a great programmer. Before then, I had probably spent under 1,000 hours "coding". From 1996 to 2007, age 12 to age 23, I spent around 1,000 hours "coding" simple things like websites, MSDOS bat scripts, simple php functions, and "hello world" type programs for an Introduction to Computer Science class. Despite the fact that I have always had an enormous fascination with computers, and spent a ton of time using them, I was completely clueless about how they worked and how to really program.
(If you're wondering why didn't I start coding seriously until I was 23 and out of college there's a simple and probably common reason: the whole time I was in school my goal was to be cool, and programming does not make you cool. Had I known I would never be cool anyway, I probably would have started coding sooner.)
Finally in December 2007 I decided to make programming my career and #1 hobby. Since then I estimate I've spent 20-50 hours per week either coding or practicing. By practicing I mean reading books about computers and code, thinking about coding, talking to others, and all other related activities that are not actually writing code.
That means I've spent between 2,000-5,000 hours developing my skills. Hopefully, by reading these tips, you can move much faster than I have over the past 2 years.