Programming Lessons: A Critical Mistake That Takes Months Away

Intro

In the previous blog post, I discussed mistakes that make it more difficult for you to get a job in the software development industry. But I forgot about one of the most important ones. And this is about developing your own project.

The Critical Mistake That Takes Months Away

What is this mistake about? Let's imagine: you are inspired to create a project with a technology you just learned. For this example, a real-time chat application. This is definitely an advanced-level project. What do you do next? You likely will start creating a project plan. This may include user stories, deciding on features, making a flowchart, and determining a project architecture. And you begin to develop the project. But it doesn't go as quickly as you would prefer. And you either abandon the project before it is done, or it takes too much time to finish. What's wrong here? Let's find out.

The Solution To The Problem

What are the reasons for slow project development? If you attempt to make too many features simultaneously, then this is definitely a reason that affects your development speed. Or maybe you choose an overly complex project for your skill level. Also counts. Or/and something else. But what I realized is that we have another, no less meaningful reason. And this is: preparation. The preparation step should be before the development step. But what do I mean exactly by "preparation"? It is actually simple. Go to the internet and check similar projects you are about to build. No need to reinvent the wheel. Check the source code of a couple of projects that are relevant to yours. Really take the time to do that. This will definitely accelerate your project development. Because, after reading the code of other developers, you would likely know quite a bit of stuff related to your own project. And I am not talking about merely copying someone's stuff, I am talking about understanding someone's code and being able to transfer this understanding to your own project. It is important to write lots of code, but it is no less important to read a lot of code too.

Here you go! This is what to do when you are about to start your own project: supercharge with knowledge, and then go on all 100%! Got questions? Send an email to commitnobug@outlook.com.