1) One of my favorite sayings is "If you look at code from 6 months ago and you aren't embarrassed, you aren't learning fast enough". If you are embarrassed, GREAT! It means you're learning
2) You can't steer a ship that isn't moving. The more you are trying things, doing things, moving forward the more you'll be learning and able to course correct.
3) Everyone has off days... I've been in the industry for 15 years in roles from entry to CTO, and I still have days where it just isn't clicking. If you're having trouble with something, don't think its you - this stuff is hard! Bang your head against it for a while, then go for a run or a walk, or take a shower, or a nap... I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated by a problem for hours or even days and then the answer comes to me in the shower after a run.
4) Don't hesitate to ask for help, but also don't ask the instant you run into something. You need to bang your head against a problem for a little while before you have the context for someone's help to translate into learning. The length of time to work on something before asking probably varies by person, but my rule of thumb for juniors is 15-30 minutes.
I like #4, but I have found less cases of people asking too many questions, than not asking enough. I have found that, depending on the situation, junior developers feel too intimated to ask questions, especially early on in a position or project. So, as a senior dev, I make it a regular occurrence to reach out to junior devs and see if they have any questions.
A few quick thoughts on this.
1) One of my favorite sayings is "If you look at code from 6 months ago and you aren't embarrassed, you aren't learning fast enough". If you are embarrassed, GREAT! It means you're learning
2) You can't steer a ship that isn't moving. The more you are trying things, doing things, moving forward the more you'll be learning and able to course correct.
3) Everyone has off days... I've been in the industry for 15 years in roles from entry to CTO, and I still have days where it just isn't clicking. If you're having trouble with something, don't think its you - this stuff is hard! Bang your head against it for a while, then go for a run or a walk, or take a shower, or a nap... I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated by a problem for hours or even days and then the answer comes to me in the shower after a run.
4) Don't hesitate to ask for help, but also don't ask the instant you run into something. You need to bang your head against a problem for a little while before you have the context for someone's help to translate into learning. The length of time to work on something before asking probably varies by person, but my rule of thumb for juniors is 15-30 minutes.
I like #4, but I have found less cases of people asking too many questions, than not asking enough. I have found that, depending on the situation, junior developers feel too intimated to ask questions, especially early on in a position or project. So, as a senior dev, I make it a regular occurrence to reach out to junior devs and see if they have any questions.
Definitely! I probably should have mentioned that, the problem is almost always not asking enough.
For a lot of folks, the 15-20 minute is more to put a CAP on their instinct to keep staring at it rather than to get them to look for longer.