One of the biggest mistakes I made as a developer was thinking that good developers code faster.
They don't necessarily code faster.
They spend less time coding the wrong thing.
When I first started building projects, my approach was pretty simple:
Open VS Code → Start coding → Get stuck → Search Google → Change things → Break something else → Rewrite it 😭
And honestly, this works... until your projects become bigger.
That's when I realized something important:
Before writing code, I should spend some time understanding what I'm actually building.
🧠 Step 1: Understand the Problem
Before touching the keyboard, ask:
- What exactly am I trying to build?
- Who is going to use it?
- What should happen when the user performs an action?
- What data do I need?
- What should the final result look like?
It sounds obvious.
But skipping this step can lead to writing a lot of code for the wrong problem.
🧩 Step 2: Break It Into Smaller Problems
Instead of thinking:
"I need to build a messaging system."
Break it down:
Messaging System
│
├── Authentication
├── Conversations
├── Sending Messages
├── Receiving Messages
├── Message Storage
├── File Uploads
├── Notifications
└── Error Handling
Suddenly, the huge problem becomes a collection of smaller problems.
And smaller problems are much easier to solve.
⚠️ Step 3: Think About Edge Cases
Don't only think about the happy path.
For example:
User sends message
↓
Works ✅
That's great.
But what if:
No internet connection?
Empty message?
Server error?
User logged out?
Database unavailable?
Message too large?
Thinking about these cases before coding can save you from a lot of debugging later.
🛠️ Step 4: Choose the Simplest Solution
Developers love building complicated things.
Sometimes unnecessarily complicated things. 😂
Before implementing something, ask:
"Is there a simpler way to solve this?"
You don't always need:
- another library
- another abstraction
- another database
- another design pattern
- 500 lines of code
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution.
💻 Step 5: Then Start Coding
Now open VS Code.
At this point, you aren't blindly writing code.
You already know:
What → Why → How → Edge cases
So the coding process becomes much more focused.
Instead of:
Code → Problem → Rewrite → Problem → Rewrite
you move closer to:
Understand
↓
Plan
↓
Build
↓
Test
↓
Improve
🚀 The Biggest Lesson
Planning doesn't mean spending hours designing everything before writing a single line of code.
Sometimes 5–10 minutes of thinking can save an hour of coding.
The goal isn't to predict every possible problem.
The goal is to reduce uncertainty before you start.
Because being a good developer isn't just about knowing how to write code.
It's also about knowing:
What code actually needs to be written.
💭 What about you?
Do you usually:
A) Start coding immediately and figure things out along the way?
or
B) Plan everything first and then start coding?
I'm somewhere in between — and I'm slowly learning that a little planning saves a LOT of debugging. 😭
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