What do you do when you hear about a new hot thing in programming?

If you’re like me, you probably read a bit and quickly decide it sounds cool. You bookmark a few websites and maybe add them to the learning to-do list.

Sometimes you may even learn — watch a few tutorials, skim the documentation, play with it.

Usually, before you can master it, the new shiny thing appears, and your attention shifts.

The conclusion is simple — there are just too many things to learn; how could you master it all?

You can’t.

You don’t have unlimited time. You don’t have unlimited attention. You can’t learn everything. In fact, you should learn fewer things than you think. …

Napoleon Bonaparte famously said:

“For war we need three things — money, money and more money.”

It resembles what you need to learn to program — to code, code, and code some more. That’s the only viable way to get better.

You probably already know that, and maybe you’ve been coding for years. But I bet sometimes you get stuck. You may be involved in a long project with few challenges or still looking for a job and not knowing how to stand out from the crowd.

Whatever it is, it feels like you’re coding more and more and can’t progress. Every project is similar. …

This is not advice on how to get a FAANG job or working for another huge company. Big companies have complex recruitment processes and need different approaches.

This is advice on how to find one of the millions of software developer jobs at smaller companies.

The advice is simple: Look for the company you want to work for and apply there — even if it’s not recruiting.

My Story

I’m a self-taught software developer. In 2015, I quit my job and bet on learning to code. After ten months, I had spent most of my savings and had no job.

I felt like I knew how to code, but I couldn’t seem to land a job. I was sending many applications and had a few interviews and even one workday trial. All for nothing. There was always a better candidate, and I was on the brink of depression. …

Learning is the most important skill you can have. It allows you to change careers, get promoted, or pick up a new hobby.

And it allows you to become a software developer.

You know how to learn, don’t you? After all, you’ve been doing it for years. Despite this, your intuitions about learning may be wrong. Even worse, you could have picked up some bad learning habits in school.

Let’s discuss common learning mistakes and how to fix them.

Easy way to make reusable React components out of SVG without fancy tooling — just React, ReactDOM, and JSX.

You’re working in React, just got an SVG, and want to use it in a project.

How do you approach it? Make it a component!

What are the benefits? You’ll be able to reuse SVG in different React components, and you’ll also have control over its properties. Also, it’s easy.

So let’s get started.

What are we building?

We’ll be building a small SVG component. We’ll be able to control its size, color, and gradient color. …

What do you want out of your professional life?

To find your first job? Earn more money? Freelance or build a product? Whatever it is, the easiest way to achieve your goal is to specialize.

Specialize at the Beginning of Your Career

The need for specialization for beginners is stronger than ever. The number of software development jobs and tools is overwhelming. You can learn hundreds of different languages or frameworks and use them in a myriad of domains.

You can’t learn it all. Even if you could, no one will believe you did.

You shouldn’t learn it all.

What you should do is make a plan. Find something you want to learn, check the typical requirements for the position you’re aiming at, and learn it one thing at a time. …

You want to learn to code. How do you approach it?

You can go to university to get a Computer Science degree or enroll in a bootcamp. But the former takes years and may cost a lot, while the latter is surely expensive. Are you ready to spend thousands of dollars learning to code when you’re not sure if you actually want to be a programmer?

Wouldn't it be nice to learn at home for free — or at least cheaply?

I’ve got good news: You can. There are thousands of courses and tutorials.

I’ve also got bad news: It’s not easy. …

I know it’s just November, but many of us want this year to end, so let’s take a peek at what may be the most important front-end trends in 2021 — and one trend that I don’t think will prevail.