The Path to Becoming a Top 1% Programmer

You are doing the exact same things that 99% of programmers are already doing

So you want to become better than 99% of programmers. But you are doing the exact same things that 99% of programmers are already doing — watching video tutorials, doing online courses, and solving Leetcode problems. Everybody is doing that.

Today we are going to discuss how, if we are in the field of coding and programming, we can go into the top 1% of our field. How we can stand out from the crowd and move forward. Now, all the things we are going to discuss today will be fairly simple, there is no need for us to make any major sacrifice.

But yes, realistically speaking, none of these are things that if we do for one day, we will reach the top 1%. These are things on which we will have to invest conscious effort and consciously invest time, and gradually, if we keep following all these things over time, then definitely we will be reaching the top 1 in our field.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain

Doing what everyone else is doing is the very definition of how to become average. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to get ahead of others, you have to be willing to do what others are not willing to do.

Here are such things you can do right now.

Enjoy the Process

Now, the very first thing we can do among these is to enjoy the process. So basically, the thing we can pick from here is the mindset. About our work — the more meaningful we understand that whatever work we are doing, whatever things we are doing, whatever skill we are trying to build feels to us as meaningful, the more we enjoy that thing.

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” — Aristotle

The more that thing brings happiness for us. Therefore, if we want to become the top 1% coder, then we will have to genuinely enjoy the process of coding. In every field, whether we take an example of any field, the top % people are those who genuinely enjoy their work more than other people. Therefore, it is important for us to consciously enjoy it as well.

The Right Mindset for Growth

Now, here, “enjoying” does not mean at all that if we are watching a movie or going out with friends or eating good food, we will start enjoying coding to that extent. Definitely, it is such a thing in which we will be putting in more effort; but at the end, doing this does not mean that if we code merely for mental peace or a sense of satisfaction, then my job will get done — this is absolutely the wrong approach.

“Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.” — Unknown

Because after a week, that thing will slip from our mind, and then we will not feel like doing it. So, we will have to consciously enjoy our work, find meaning in it, so that that thing actually makes us happy — so that the whole process of coding and programming starts giving us happiness.

Master Debugging Skills

Most people think that programmers code all day. In reality, programmers spend most of their time debugging code. Breaking things and fixing them is an essential skill to become a skilled programmer.

“It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates

Yet, beginners don’t spend any time learning the right way to debug code. To get started with learning debugging, you can do this course called Software Debugging on Udacity.

Look Out for Opportunities

The thing that we can do is to look out for opportunities — opportunities that give us the chance to improve our existing skills and opportunities that give us the chance to learn new skills. We can also call this being curious. We can also call this experimentation, but basically, we have to keep looking for such opportunities where we get a chance to do something within tech.

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” — Albert Einstein

Do not ignore any small opportunity; in fact, it is about seeking out new opportunities, finding them — because in tech, many times you will see successful people who started with a very small, very random thing, and then that thing kick-started their career — they brought a big change in their career. So, we should not be lazy, we have to actively go and seek out opportunities.

Quality Over Quantity

When starting out, many beginners watch the longest possible programming tutorials, learn as many programming languages as they can, and build as many projects as possible. In other words, quantity is often assumed to be all that matters.

“It is quality rather than quantity that matters.” — Seneca

But in programming, quality matters much more than quantity. One great project on your resume can easily give you an edge over someone who has 10 basic projects on their resume.

Invest Time in Your Skills

Time does not mean that as our age increases, we will become an inventive coder. The time here means that the more hours we spend on this skill, the more inventive we will become. Those hours you can spend either after you get a job or you can start spending them during your college life. But basically, this is a skill and for learning this skill, the sooner and more hours you invest, the better you will become in that skill.

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” — Theophrastus

The first of these is that we invest time in making projects using our skills, because whenever we invest our time in practical learning, it will bring us more fruitful outputs for us. And the second thing is that we invest our time in reading documentation, learning, and looking at the work of other people.

The Importance of Reading Code

Think about this: If a programmer writes 10,000 lines of code over two years, how many lines of code do you think they have read during the same period? It would easily be 100,000 lines of code, which is 10 times what they have written. Yet, new programmers spend no time reading code written by experienced programmers. Go to GitHub and spend 30 minutes trying to understand someone else’s code every day.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin

Many times in tech, we know how to write our own code, we know how to write our logic, but it is also important in tech that we read other people’s code, understand other people’s code. In fact, if we go and read the code, documentation, or random articles, blogs, etc., of those industry professionals who are already working and coding professionally, then that gives us inventive.

So, as a programmer, just writing code is not enough; we should also establish a good reading habit. Because many times, when we go to work in a company, we will have to learn things by reading documentation — there, we will not be taught in a way that makes us sit like in school.

Collaborating with Other Programmers & Networking

The biggest disadvantage beginners face is that often, they don’t get the opportunity to collaborate with experienced programmers. As a result, they never learn what it’s like to collaborate with other engineers on a team. To solve this problem, you can start contributing to open-source projects.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller

If you are working in a company, look out for people who can help you grow and whom you can help grow. And the type of networking we can do is with the seniors in our industry. Many times, seniors have already made those mistakes, so there are some common mistakes that they prevent us from making.

Many times, they recommend good resources and good opportunities to us. And many times, they give us the right career advice which we can follow. So, in this way, when we network with some good mentors in our field, it is not that they will only help us in college or help with referrals for the first job; we will get help from these people for a lifetime as long as we are working in our tech industry. So, in this way, making good connections with the people in our industry, networking well, is important to grow in this field.

Learning from the Best

To become a top 1% coder, you need to know what a top 1% coder looks like. But where can you even find a top 1% coder? At conferences and meetups. To find meetups happening near you, you can use meetup.com. The First Step: Thinking Like a Programmer. But before you can do any of this, you need to know how to think like a programmer.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

Final Thoughts on becoming top 1% programmer

Now, these were some things that can benefit the maximum number of us to reach the top 1%, and to follow these it is not absolutely necessary. It may be that we are already a working professional, working in a company; even then, if we follow these things, we will see results in the end.

Now, these are the kinds of things that, if we start doing them, we will not see results overnight, but I can assure that if you try to include these things in your daily routine with conscious effort, taking small steps — if we do every day, then after 30 days, after one month, we will definitely start seeing some changes.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

And after 6 months, we will have a strong belief that by definitely practicing these things in our career and professional life, by putting in conscious effort every day, we can move towards the top 1% in our field. So, I hope to see a lot of you becoming the top 1% in this field. That’s all for today; see you in the next story. Till then, keep learning and keep exploring.

Let’s grow, learn, and build amazing things together!
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