The latest articles on DEV Community by Ethan Moffat (@ethanmoffat). https://dev.to/ethanmoffat https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F85135%2Ffa5bff83-2dce-4172-88f2-6582ca577801.jpg https://dev.to/ethanmoffat en Ethan Moffat Tue, 17 Jul 2018 23:58:27 +0000 https://dev.to/ethanmoffat/my-struggle-i-have-when-speaking-with-other-developers-and-ways-i-want-to-fix-it-3ei8 https://dev.to/ethanmoffat/my-struggle-i-have-when-speaking-with-other-developers-and-ways-i-want-to-fix-it-3ei8 <p>I've been a happy developer for a few years and do understand some concepts, but over this learning journey I've met a lot of other developers and what I've noticed is I have a huge problem when having programming conversations with them. </p> <h1> My problem </h1> <p>So, every single time I have a programming discussion with another developer I'm enjoying the time and having fun learning some new things about programming however, my huge problem is if I do not understand something I tend not to say "I don't understand?" or "What does this mean?" I just say "Oh cool" or "That's interesting" even though I have no idea what they mean. I guess I'm easily embarrassed and that's a bad trait to have because then I worry too much, I think part of the reason I am writing to DEV community is because if I write this I might actually start realizing that's okay not to understand things and I should get out of my bad habit.</p> <h1> My goals to overcome this </h1> <p>I love setting goals, do I always stay true to all of them. No. However, I am really driven in learning how to expand my skill set in programming every single day. So here's some goals I am going to do for my future self.</p> <ul> <li>When I don't understand something ask nicely for a better explanation (priority)</li> <li>If I kind of understand a topic in the conversation but not on a great level, add it to a list of things to research and spend some time reading about it every night until the list is over.</li> <li>Keeping the list of things to read is important to me so I will strive to have that list always have a minimum of one concept to read.</li> </ul> <p>Short goal list but it fits my issue and should be able to get rid of that bad trait I have pretty much always had. </p> <h1> What are your thoughts? </h1> <p>Finally, I would like to ask the DEV community for some advice on overcoming this as well. I understand it's okay to not know everything but the thing is I don't really put an effort into learning a new concept because how easily embarrassed I can get which doesn't help in my development of becoming a better programmer.</p> <p>Thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope I'll get some awesome advice from this wonderful community. I've been reading the articles for a while but just registered last night so happy to be a part of DEV </p> <p><em>p.s.</em> At the start of my programming journey I was always asking questions, super excited and then in no time it just started to go away because I felt like at the level I was at I didn't want to get embarrassed to the point where I wouldn't want to program anymore cause then I would just judge every single line I wrote and would start to disbelieve in my abilities. </p> discuss