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How to Get Better at Coding Without Really Trying

Kaemon Lovendahl on March 31, 2021

Intro This article was made to help those, like myself, that have trouble finding the time, or the patience to practice skills related t...
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Brian B.

"Know How You Learn", the shortest section, but by far the most important. I cannot learn from video, at all. It turns into me just retyping what the person is typing and I ingest none of it. Give me low-level documentation, though, and I turn into an expert. Once I figured this out, I was home-free. Before you ever figure out how to interface new code with your computer you have to find a way to interface new code with your brain and it's just as specific in how it receives new data.

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Stephan Lamoureux

Staying out of your comfort zone is definitely where most of your growth will come!

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Abdul Ojulari

Well as for me, learning by practicing is the most effective way of learning. Videos make it easier, at least if the tutors make it work, I would definitely get it working and reapply the knowledge where is suitably needed.

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Robin Bastiaan

Good article! In my career as a developer I have found out that knowing how to code is not the same as knowing how to put the knowledge into practice. For me the magic happens when I build something new with techniques with little experience all while trying to uphold the best conventions. That being said, I do like to know stuff by memory so I can breeze through the development process more quickly and have some sense of confidence I know what I am working on.

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Bryan Lee • Edited

What helps me when doing a video course is taking notes with keywords highlighted. I have multiple notebooks full of notes, and I can come back to it and review what I learned whenever I want. It also works as reference. And the process of note-taking makes you engaged with the video content. Otherwise I get bored and lose attention.

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webstuff

You know your title has no srnse regarding the article. I mean all those things, coding challenges for instance, they require you to lose time, to add time to the craft.
If you re working a 9 to 17 job, you need to add time for new projects.

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Pawan Pawar

Keep sharing

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Joan Comas Fernandez

Good advise here! I'd like to point out though that repeating an exercise every week, doing your own projects and doing coding challenges is actually trying.

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Andrew Baisden

Agreed coding challenges can make a big difference. And the fact that many interviews require you to know some data structures and algorithms its a good thing to practice.

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squidbe

Good, reasonable advice, but your title is misrepresentative and, thus, seems clickbaity. I think a more representative title would serve you better.