Coding can be hard, especially as a beginner, so many fields to get into, so many projects that could potentially be built but there's just you, trying to find your way through all the noise the best way you can... Or rather—The best way you think. Let's face it—learning to code sounds like hard work. It can be downright intimidating and overwhelming but there's a better much more simple and lazier way to approach coding.
Not the kind of lazy that involves doing nothing, but the smart kind. The type of laziness where you learn just what you need and automate as much as possible. As Bill Gates once famously said,
I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.
The above words perfectly encapsulates the work or mindset of the current programmer/developer, building software in today's world is about finding easier ways to do things, so why don't you find an easier way to learn? (Spoiler Alert: There's no easy way) Here are some things you might want to employ to make yourself a better learner and developer
1. Do Your Research
Many people make the mistake of getting into whatever's trending, myself I started with python cause 4 years ago that was all the rave, but these days I find myself working more with JavaScript. It's nice to stay up-to-date with things but also work on what feels best for you (Received this from a mentor I met at a tech conference)
2. No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
With multiple tools and libraries out there, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, take advantage of tools like Google or Stack Overflow, even most recent, ChatGPT and the likes. It's not about memorizing solutions, it's about finding them when they're needed.
3. The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
According to Wikipedia, The Pareto Principle states that;
For many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the "vital few").
How does this relate to programming? Well, it comes down to understanding foundation. Take for example; functions, loops, statements, variables, etc. These are all basic to most if not all programming languages out there, once you understand the basics, the issue goes from “learning a language” to “using a language”
Languages are not the solution, they're an expression of it.
4. Break It DOWN!
This cannot be stressed enough, and personally—it gets on my nerves when I see people trying to fix problems without thinking through the steps (I do this all the time😂)
When trying to build a page, first consider the contents, this will lead to thinking of how to build the contents, and soon after, the entire page will come to life. Instead of “build a website,” break it down into “create a header,” “add an image,” etc. Progress in tiny steps feels less like work, and you get results faster.
5. Build Projects
Building projects might seem like a no-brainer for anyone who's learning to code, but as a survivor of tutorial hell, it's not that simple.
I always meet people buying courses, asking for course recommendations watching tutorials for days and yet somehow do not always seem to make progress. Now I will admit that as someone who spent my time learning code from YouTube and the marvelous creation we call the Internet, I've never understood why people spend so much money buying this or that.
The easiest way is to build as many projects as you can on your own, best part is, they don't need to make sense, and they don't need to be complete, you'd be surprised at the amount of side projects experienced devs have just laying around from their learning days that will never know what it's like to be deployed.
Now don't get me wrong, YouTube accounts like Traversy Media, TechWithTim, Dennis Ivy and a host of others played such a vital role in my learning, but staying with tutorials only made me dependent on them, I got over it by building with a tutorial and then rebuilding alone from scratch but you can always find your own model.
6. Cheating Helps!
It's not about memorizing solutions, it's about finding them when they're needed.
Remember this line from number 2? Let me expand on it.
This could come in different forms.
Whether it's putting things in notes, or bookmarking websites containing resources that could be used. At the end of the day, making them accessible is the most important, for me it was building a notes app just so I can save ideas and stuff, then there's notion templates, and some of my friends even use Google Keeps, writing can help you a lot when it comes to thinking as a developer but also in finding solutions too.
Then there's Ctrl C + Ctrl V:
I cannot count the amount of times I've needed to build something in some specific way and the host of side projects I built in the past come to the rescue, whether it's playing with a database or doing something different with authentication, a lot of the time, you end up repeating code in various projects, and this is where having a boatload of side projects can help, it shortens the time and gets the job done.
There's also reading documentation and just asking AI for help, this makes your work faster and easier.
Bonus Point!
Read your errors!
You'd be surprised at just how easy it is to fix that bug or issue you've been facing, I certainly didn't know I could solve it by reading my errors but apparently we are in a generation of technology where our technology can help us become better developers, so the errors are important...
This is a no-brainer for people with experience but for those who are still finding their feet, it's a habit they'd have to get into.
Conclusion: Laziness Is About Working Smarter, Not Harder
All-in-all, the idea of “lazy” programming isn't about being lazy in a negative sense, it's about aiming for efficiency and leveraging the existing tools to get the job done the best way possible.
Learning to code the “lazy” way is all about taking some strategic shortcuts, humor, and persistence.
Top comments (3)
This is a great perspective on learning to code! I especially appreciate the emphasis on building projects and the idea that "cheating" can actually be a powerful learning tool.
Preach dev 🙌
Appreciate 🙏🏾😅