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How to Become a Better Programmer by Learning Less
It’s time to declutter your learning to-do list
How many courses, tutorials, and articles are waiting on your to-do list? If you’re a bit like me, the answer is dozens. I’m a passionate learner who is interested in a wide range of programming subjects. But lately, I started to wonder which courses are worth my time and which are just a distraction.
A T-Shaped Trap
If you’re trying to develop your career, you probably encountered the idea of T-shaped people. They are experts in one field and have some expertise in other domains. For example, you can be a proficient back-end developer with some knowledge about DevOps, product management, and the front end.
T-shaped people are priceless employees because their diverse knowledge facilitates communication and bolsters creativity.
A broad range of interests may be advantageous. I’m an advocate for versatility and believe it’s the key competence of the future. But to be a T-shaped person, you need do possess reasonably in-depth knowledge of several subjects.
Finishing a course or two doesn’t mean you understand a field. What’s even worse, it may give you false confidence in your abilities. Learning too many things and spreading yourself thin won’t help you to develop a career. It just makes you a dabbler.
Much like you’re not an accomplished writer if you wrote two blog posts, you’re not a competent programmer after a month-long boot camp.
A T-shaped person is not someone who just scratched the surface of multiple fields. You have to carefully plan how to deepen your primary area of expertise and develop secondary skills.
To achieve success, you need to identify essential competencies and challenges. Later, laser-focus on them, removing all unnecessary courses. I’ll use myself as an example of how you can approach this.
Deepen Your Main Skill
I’m a competent front-end web developer with some knowledge about back-end…
