What I have come to realized as I work with the repo is my lack of understanding of what I'm even doing.
I write code base on the research I've done, but it seems that I don't try to understand them, and just look at the code and implement it based on what I need. I realized that this type of thinking is flawed and can never work.
Copy and Paste
I've always researched my issue, and go directly into the code, and just copy and paste what they have, only changing a bit to fit the code that I am writing. The code works perfectly, but I learn nothing from it. New developers tend to simply just copy whatever they see, and forget about its functionality later on, but I find that mindset destructive.
I have a peer that I am working on with a project, and during one of our weekly meetup, they were stuck on a piece of code. I told them to show me the problem, and I realized immediately what they were doing wrong (they were using map for a non-array object). I told them to check the console, and it literally shows them what the error was, but it never came across their mind. I wouldn't have had any problems with it, but it's a repetitive issue I had working with them.
I'm New
When the information you need is given to you directly. You never even bothered asking yourself how it works, you go straight to the answer. I noticed that junior developers such as myself, don't bother understanding what they are doing. We tell ourselves that "I'll learn about this later on" or that "It's not important". We mask our lack of knowledge with our experience. We tell ourselves that we are new, but never tried to take a stride to get better.
Of course, not everyone will have such a thorough understanding of their job. Regardless of your experience, you are bound to not know something, and the beauty of programming is that you are constantly learning-- there is never an end in sight.
Conclusion
This week has been an eye opener for me. It made me realize that I should try to understand the code I'm writing, even when I think I know it already. Never forget the basics, and continue working to gain experience. There is no developer who knows everything, only those who strive to learn.
Top comments (1)
Thanks for your honesty in this post @ririio! It inspired me to think deeply about how I’ve been learning the basics and how are want to do better. Keep up the great work! 😊 👍🏾