Learning what you don’t need to learn — the secret to a successful developer career
Software and Web development is a career path that provides developers with the opportunity to explore numerous languages and technologies. According to the demand and the industry trends, It is comparatively easy to estimate, What we need to learn, to shine in this development journey. But,
Learning what we don’t need to learn, is something that is as valuable as it enhances our productivity and more importantly peace of mind as developers.
So, In this article, I will be sharing some suggestions on What developers don’t need to learn, and an approach that can make us gradually grow and outshine as developers. Let’s begin,
1. Developers don’t need to learn everything about a programming language
That’s right. It’s okay not to learn or remember every bit of syntax, concepts, methods, or arguments that every method receives in a programming language. What we need to know at most, is about their existence. Even Senior developers take reference and spend an ample amount of time seeking solutions online on a daily basis. There is a very popular principle called the ‘80–20’ principle that states —
It’s not about learning 80% of the things, that are used 20% of the time, its about learning the 20% of the things, that are used 80% of the time.
So, only learn the concepts that form the foundation of the technology, and gradually you will build upon your foundation. Note — Research plays a vital role in your job as a developer but remember,
Seeking solutions online is reasonable, but not learning anything from them is not.
2. Developers don’t need to be proficient in every programming language
Most developers don’t work on more than 2–3 programming languages throughout their careers (we are not counting any libraries, frameworks, and tools in that). Try learning languages that have proved to be well designed in the past, stable in the present, and will dominate the future. I highly recommend learning Javascript and Python in this category.
Becoming proficient in multiple technologies definitely improves your understanding of the underlying principles of programming by providing an opportunity to see things from a different perspective, But it is absolutely not a must. Remember,
A great developer is not one who only knows multiple languages and technologies, but one who is proficient and effective at writing and organizing code with the tech stack that they possess.
Note — If you want to learn more about the ways of organizing and writing code, I do recommend checking my article “The Art of Organizing and Writing Code: Paradigms”.
3. Developers don’t need to learn newly launched languages and technologies.
In this modern era, with advancements in technology, new libraries, and frameworks ventures into the market time and again. Becoming a developer simply means committing yourself to lifelong learning. But,
Being up-to-date with the current industry doesn’t mean learning libraries and frameworks which are trending, but instead being aware of them.
Developers should be aware of what problems the library or framework resolves that any of the existing ones don’t. Developers should be aware of situations, where that technology will outshine its competitors and the very purpose of its point of existence.
New libraries and technologies are not that mature and usually take a few years to be widely accepted by the community. So developers should never rush directly into learning new technologies doubting the existing one because it will still take decades to be replaced if the new contender proves to be successful. Now a practical solution,
The secret to a successful developer career: Always prefer a project-based approach
A project-based approach simply means learning things on a ‘need-to-learn’ basis. Learn and switch technologies on the basis of the project at hand. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much expertise a developer has shown working with one particular language in comparison to a developer who is able to handle multiple projects demanding different technologies.
Also, not clinging to a particular language reduces your chances of being unemployed, In case one technology gets outdated.
That’s it for this article. If you find this article helpful just do let me know. Stay Tuned!!!
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