Please do not EVER stop learning how to code!

I remember when I was 10 and my mother was worried about me staying too much in front of the computer, writing lines of weird text on a black and white screen; I used to be one of these boys that were not supported by friends and family, because it was hard to understand computers… 🤔 but now things have changed, and writing code is cool.

I consider myself a 75% self-taught developer, meaning that I have been learning how to write code by myself, a little in school and by working. I have been working with several developers that taught me a lot. Some good developers suggested me new and exciting things. Others bad developers taught me how to be a better developer. I have recognized a pattern in almost all of them: they are not continously learning new things, and they don’t care much.

I have read this article recently, and I cannot stop to agree with it. I wanted to write this post long time ago, but it may sound offensive to somebody, or a good motivation to start doing something new.

The main problem I have recognized is that most of self-taught developers are people that are not continuously learning how to code, and they are not implementing new technologies or improving the way they are writing code.

I think that they took initially a ticket for the exciting train of coding just to jump into something “different”, or to boost their career. Yes, anybody can achieve some new goals by reading a book or following some tutorials, but at the end of the day you have to learn really a lot in order to see what you are doing wrong.

I have been learning a lot about how things works, and how my code can be improved. I am currently mastering NodeJS and performing JavaScript. Now I know a lot of things that are happening behind the curtains, not just “the logic code”. Now I do understand why it is important to learn all that bull-shit that they taught me in the university… Now I see the difference between me and somebody that do not start to count from 0. 😅

It is not just about optimisation: it is more about the style of the code, the development flows, the way we write commits, tests, the documentation and… all those small things that at the end of the day are making everything better, faster and with a better quality. 👍

I can’t say to a Designer, a Project Manager or a Business man to not learn how to code. They should do that, but they have to be aware that they will not write things properly at the beginning, and probably they should leave their jobs to real Developers. Mastering something needs time… a lot of time!

Please, learn how to code, but do not ever stop doing that! Improve yourself continuously or you will cost more money than actually hiring a senior developer.