I like what you say but this only apply to anyone who has at least your level of experience. Such things told to me by experienced developers have left me very depressed as time because I couldn't do better. I don't blame them because when people gain experience, they forget how it was to be a beginner.
These days people with five years of experience talk as if they are Uncle Bob or TGOF (The Gang of Four). Have some empathy for newer developers because any attempts of enforcing your standards on them makes them perfectionists. That's just my humble 1.8 years of experience and I mean no offense towards you personally.
I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
Hi, I'm sorry you felt that way from the comment and from conversations with other developers. Maybe you can explain more on which part you think is harmful?
My advice is indeed intended for beginners. When I coach beginners, I don't expect them to get their code efficient or pretty or to follow best practices. Some of them apologize for writing bad code that they are ashamed to show me or put online.
I assure them that I care more about solving their problem of making a tool or a website for themselves or for someone else. And that the understanding and code refinement will come with time. I don't hold them to standard of concepts they have never heard of.
I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
I don't expect beginners who have the kind of habits and templates I have built up over years. But I do share those freely so that they can apply them too, if they choose to use those.
Most of my posts here are intros to a tools, or sharing my template projects, or giving advice and inspiration to beginner developers (on of those was by far my most well-received post based on feedback).
Reading your messages, you definitely sound like a senior developer whom I'd want to be my senior. I don't have any degree and I worked very hard to learn how to code, I was 19 and took me a year to teach myself full-stack. I have colleagues that are far more experienced than I but usually they end up asking me questions when they can't figure something out. I'm not saying I'm Einstein. Far from it. I just study and work very hard every day.
Given my situation, I used to suffer from imposter syndrome and suffered from confidence issues, still do to some extent. When I tried to apply for jobs, I was usually ghosted. In coding interviews when I did a lot, I was using excessive abstraction, when I used what I needed, I failed to add or didn't add a line. When I try to share my opinion, somehow I'm wrong because an experience developer say that SEO is not an issue for a website built with React on the front-end because modern day bots can figure it out. (No, not Gatsby or Next, pure React). When I say SEO is not an issue. "View Page Source" shows that SEO sucks.
Maybe I've been applying to the wrong places or today's software engineering scene is full of stigma and perfectionists who just want to appear smarter than you. The thing is, I end up believing them because I feel they know what they're talking about. Which is just exhausting because I find every developer has opinions and they judge you and your work based on their opinions.
I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
Unfortunately developers are going to be the same as any non developer field. Some want to tell you that you are wrong because they get satisfaction from being right. Post a message online with a bold claim or a deliberate inaccurate fact and just see how quickly people will jump in to correct you! Dev and non dev topics both.
Or they feel their way is threatened and get defensive (I have learned to stay out of best OS, best framework, best paradigm or best language debates online because it gets messy and too emotional and in the end no one had a solution that fits every case)
And then you will have some developers who are patient with you and have awareness that just because we do something differently or have different knowledge doesn't mean we have to be critical. I hope you find a company and team that has that culture.
I've also learnt to give me opinions without stating them as facts, or I say "such and such worked for me, so i recommend, but it might not be right for you". That takes maturity and awareness which not everyone has.
I'm a self-taught dev focused on websites and Python development.
My friends call me the "Data Genie".
When I get bored, I find tech to read about, write about and build things with.
I'd like to see if I can provide guidance in dealing with job seeking, learning direction or habits, or any topics you need help with (I am interested to talk more on the React SEO thing as I've spent some time on that recently - it's a complex one).
Let me know if you want to connect on LinkedIn or Twitter and maybe set up a video chat. I've done that with a couple of people over the last year and it has been fun and rewarding on both sides of the conversation.
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I like what you say but this only apply to anyone who has at least your level of experience. Such things told to me by experienced developers have left me very depressed as time because I couldn't do better. I don't blame them because when people gain experience, they forget how it was to be a beginner.
These days people with five years of experience talk as if they are Uncle Bob or TGOF (The Gang of Four). Have some empathy for newer developers because any attempts of enforcing your standards on them makes them perfectionists. That's just my humble 1.8 years of experience and I mean no offense towards you personally.
Hi, I'm sorry you felt that way from the comment and from conversations with other developers. Maybe you can explain more on which part you think is harmful?
My advice is indeed intended for beginners. When I coach beginners, I don't expect them to get their code efficient or pretty or to follow best practices. Some of them apologize for writing bad code that they are ashamed to show me or put online.
I assure them that I care more about solving their problem of making a tool or a website for themselves or for someone else. And that the understanding and code refinement will come with time. I don't hold them to standard of concepts they have never heard of.
I don't expect beginners who have the kind of habits and templates I have built up over years. But I do share those freely so that they can apply them too, if they choose to use those.
Most of my posts here are intros to a tools, or sharing my template projects, or giving advice and inspiration to beginner developers (on of those was by far my most well-received post based on feedback).
Reading your messages, you definitely sound like a senior developer whom I'd want to be my senior. I don't have any degree and I worked very hard to learn how to code, I was 19 and took me a year to teach myself full-stack. I have colleagues that are far more experienced than I but usually they end up asking me questions when they can't figure something out. I'm not saying I'm Einstein. Far from it. I just study and work very hard every day.
Given my situation, I used to suffer from imposter syndrome and suffered from confidence issues, still do to some extent. When I tried to apply for jobs, I was usually ghosted. In coding interviews when I did a lot, I was using excessive abstraction, when I used what I needed, I failed to add or didn't add a line. When I try to share my opinion, somehow I'm wrong because an experience developer say that SEO is not an issue for a website built with React on the front-end because modern day bots can figure it out. (No, not Gatsby or Next, pure React). When I say SEO is not an issue. "View Page Source" shows that SEO sucks.
Maybe I've been applying to the wrong places or today's software engineering scene is full of stigma and perfectionists who just want to appear smarter than you. The thing is, I end up believing them because I feel they know what they're talking about. Which is just exhausting because I find every developer has opinions and they judge you and your work based on their opinions.
Unfortunately developers are going to be the same as any non developer field. Some want to tell you that you are wrong because they get satisfaction from being right. Post a message online with a bold claim or a deliberate inaccurate fact and just see how quickly people will jump in to correct you! Dev and non dev topics both.
Or they feel their way is threatened and get defensive (I have learned to stay out of best OS, best framework, best paradigm or best language debates online because it gets messy and too emotional and in the end no one had a solution that fits every case)
And then you will have some developers who are patient with you and have awareness that just because we do something differently or have different knowledge doesn't mean we have to be critical. I hope you find a company and team that has that culture.
I've also learnt to give me opinions without stating them as facts, or I say "such and such worked for me, so i recommend, but it might not be right for you". That takes maturity and awareness which not everyone has.
Thank you Michael, this means a lot to me.
I'd like to see if I can provide guidance in dealing with job seeking, learning direction or habits, or any topics you need help with (I am interested to talk more on the React SEO thing as I've spent some time on that recently - it's a complex one).
Let me know if you want to connect on LinkedIn or Twitter and maybe set up a video chat. I've done that with a couple of people over the last year and it has been fun and rewarding on both sides of the conversation.