Learning to Code Is Not Enough. You Need to Build Stuff
Roadmap to be a builder
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” — Richard Branson
I have seen many beginners who focus on learning to program using a popular programming language. Their focus is on knowing the syntax and writing simple programs.
Building an application should be their focus. Programming is a tool that can be used to solve problems. Applying your skills to build new stuff should be their goal. While building something new your knowledge deepens and you learn a lot of new cool things.
Here I present a road map for newbies to transition from learners to builders —
Build a website or two
Whatever you build, a device, web service, frontend, or anything you always need a website to showcase your product. Being able to build a website is a skill that is simple and creative at the same time.
I have considered making a website below my paygrade kind of job. But now I know this is an essential skill to have. Tools like WordPress makes it very easy for users to create their own site.
Learn HTML and JS
Like having the skill of building a website, HTML and JS are also great skills to have for any kind of software developer.
Say, you are working on a data science project, and you need to show the results in an attractive way, you need a good frontend. By good, I don’t mean a very attractive one, but it should be simple and should serve its purpose.
Whether you show your solution to business folks, higher management, or your client it is good to have a front-end that helps them interact and receive the desired information.
Build applications
By application, I don’t mean a phone application. It should be a solution to a problem you/others face. It could be backend code, a phone app, a web app, a device, or any kind of software solution.
Building such applications or solutions make you learn more than reading books and watching videos. You would realize, that finishing your projects takes much more effort than starting them.
Start projects and see them through.
Dig deeper
Learn more languages, tools, frameworks, and design patterns. You don’t need to learn each and every feature of a language or the framework to start coding. You learn these features also in an agile manner.
It's not possible to learn everything before you start coding. Learning as you go is a better way. Don’t stuff yourselves with all the knowledge and jump to use it. Learning and implementing go hand in hand with one another.
Conclusion
“What we learn to do, we learn by doing.” — Thomas Jefferson
Building cool stuff should be the way you want to learn to code. It’s the same as cycling, you can read a lot of books to understand how to cycle but if you don’t ride a cycle you are never going to learn.
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