Is there a recipe for success to become a rock-star developer? I will answer your question right now. Becoming a sought-after developer is usually no different than another professional who is sought-after because they are very good at what they do e.g. doctor, plumber, engineer etc. In all professions there are those who work for a living, and those who love their work and put that extra something called passion. Passion means continuous professional self-improvement by learning new things with the aim of continuous development. Therefore, a sought-after developer should have a willingness to learn, curiosity, patience, persistence and creativity.
Now on to the recipe. You will either love programming or hate it. Of course, it depends on what experience you will have as a beginner. If you mess with a programming language you can’t understand, chances are you’ll hate it and never deal with it again. On the other hand, if you start with a programming language you like, then you’ll love programming and keep going. So the recipe goes like this:
- First you start with programming because you find it interesting and you want to learn to build your own programs, games, websites, etc. You should be willing to literally burn for the next 10 years. Why 10 years? Because that’s about how long it takes to become an “expert” in a subject according to Peter Norvig and the very good post he uploaded about it entitled Teach yourself programming in ten years.
- Find a programming language that you understand and like. Experiment first and then start with the basics of programming. On the Internet there is a lot of material to learn what you want easily and quickly.
- None stop coding. Start experimenting. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the code. If you don’t screw up, you’re not going to learn. It takes practice to understand programming.
- Talk to developers. Read code from other developers. This method is much more efficient than reading a programming book outright.
- Collaborate on projects with other developers. You might be the best on the team, but sometimes you might be the worst. In both cases you are a winner. In the first case where you are the best of the others, you can test your abilities to organize and lead a project. In the event that you are the worst in the group, it is a very good opportunity to learn new things from experts of the genre.
If you follow the above and find the programming process fun and interesting, then you have a very serious chance of becoming the next rock-star programmer. It is no coincidence that the happiest people in the world are programmers ????
Good start (if I convinced you…)