In short, if you want to be a really good or outstanding developer, you should use every opportunity to learn and code. Of course, it increases the chance of burning out eventually, but you can consider it a price paid for being an outstanding developer. Nothing is for free and it's only your choice of how much you want to invest. More you invest, better you may become. Find a good balance. Sacrifice if you want more. People are different so someone has to invest more, someone less to be at the same level. It's also not for everyone. Ideally, it's your hobby so you tend to learn and code as much as you can, often at an expense of not sleeping or similar sacrifices, simply because you like it and enjoy it. But that's probably not your case, since you wouldn't ask such question.
You can still be a good developer, even if you don't invest your own time into learning, but I don't personally know any outstanding developers around me, who wouldn't learn & code all the time simply because they like it.
Also, the IT is generally a no-bullshit field regarding the skills. It usually doesn't matter how many schools you have finished, how many diplomas you have or how many hours of your free time you devote to learning and coding every day. What matters is your real knowledge and your skills.
So if anyone is telling you that you're not a good developer just because you don't spend the whole nights coding, it means he's an idiot who has no clue what matters, and he won't be able to help you grow.
Thank you for the nice words. I think we live amazing times, when as you said, people without CS studies can enter the field and become as good as they want. There's no limit on the things one can learn (ok, maybe just time wise). I'm lucky I didn't have to sacrifice anything until now because I already liked learning new things, even before becoming a frontend developer. But I understand that for others self teaching can be challenging. And not because they don't want to become better but because it doesn't suit them.
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In short, if you want to be a really good or outstanding developer, you should use every opportunity to learn and code. Of course, it increases the chance of burning out eventually, but you can consider it a price paid for being an outstanding developer. Nothing is for free and it's only your choice of how much you want to invest. More you invest, better you may become. Find a good balance. Sacrifice if you want more. People are different so someone has to invest more, someone less to be at the same level. It's also not for everyone. Ideally, it's your hobby so you tend to learn and code as much as you can, often at an expense of not sleeping or similar sacrifices, simply because you like it and enjoy it. But that's probably not your case, since you wouldn't ask such question.
You can still be a good developer, even if you don't invest your own time into learning, but I don't personally know any outstanding developers around me, who wouldn't learn & code all the time simply because they like it.
Also, the IT is generally a no-bullshit field regarding the skills. It usually doesn't matter how many schools you have finished, how many diplomas you have or how many hours of your free time you devote to learning and coding every day. What matters is your real knowledge and your skills.
So if anyone is telling you that you're not a good developer just because you don't spend the whole nights coding, it means he's an idiot who has no clue what matters, and he won't be able to help you grow.
Thank you for the nice words. I think we live amazing times, when as you said, people without CS studies can enter the field and become as good as they want. There's no limit on the things one can learn (ok, maybe just time wise). I'm lucky I didn't have to sacrifice anything until now because I already liked learning new things, even before becoming a frontend developer. But I understand that for others self teaching can be challenging. And not because they don't want to become better but because it doesn't suit them.