Pinned — 28 Oct 2025 #codingStreet-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding Without Losing Your Mind
I spent five years in college learning to code.
A stupid dissertation delayed my graduation. But that’s another story.
Most of my five-year program didn’t prepare me for real-world coding. My real coding journey began at my first job, with one Google search: “how to get good at coding.”
I found a lot of conflicting advice:
“Use comments”
“Don’t use comments”
“Do this”
“Don’t do that”
Arrggg!
It took years of trial and error to learn what worked.
I had to survive on-call shifts, talk to stakeholders, and say “no” politely. More importantly, I had to learn that coding takes more than just syntax.
That’s why I wrote Street-Smart Coding— a roadmap of 30 lessons I wish I had when I started. For every dev who’s ever typed “how to get better at coding” into Google or ChatGPT. (Back in my days, I didn’t have ChatGPT… Wait, I sound like a nostalgic grandpa…)
Preview of the first ~12 pages
Inside “Street-Smart Coding”
This isn’t a textbook. It’s a battle-tested guide for your journey from junior/mid-level to senior.
Some lessons are conventional.
Others were learned the hard way.
And a few are weird.
One lesson comes from a TV show. Nope, not Mr. Robot or Silicon Valley. That’s on Chapter #29. It will teach you about problem-solving.
You’ll learn how to:
Google like a pro
Debug without banging your head against a wall
Communicate clearly with non-tech folks
…and 27 more lessons I learned over ten years of mistakes.
04 Mar 2026 #selfgrowth#books10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too
Big plans rarely change your life.
In 2023, life forced me to change. Burnout hit me hard. It hurt both my mind and my body. My poor eating habits only made things worse. Then, in 2024, I was laid off. The last nail in the coffin. It felt devastating.
The way up was slow. Master plans and New Year’s resolutions didn’t work. A new life felt impossible.
One single quote inspired me to get up: “If you’re lost, start with your health.” That quote became the foundation of Chapter 1 and the real step toward change.
Small daily actions made real change possible.
That’s why I wrote 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too. If you’ve ever asked, “How do you actually change your life”, this is for you.
Big plans don’t change your life. Small daily actions do.
Preview of the first ~10 pages
Forget passion and master plans. This book is about the tiny daily actions that actually change your life. I know because they changed mine.
Inside this book, you’ll find 10 surprisingly simple ideas that changed my life, and can change yours too:
Idea #1: The mindset shift that gave me purpose when I couldn’t get out of bed.
Idea #2: The daily habit that keeps burnout away.
Idea #3: The productivity hack that doubled my focus.
Idea #4: The free advice that saved me during my hardest year.
Idea #5: The creative practice that helped me write books and countless articles.
…and five more life-changing ideas you can start using right away.
This isn’t a 7-day program or a magic formula. It’s about small daily ideas that create big change.
Get your copy here—For launch week only: You can even just pay $1. Begin your transformation today.
To keep myself accountable, here’s a list of changes I’d like to make on my blog:
#1. New About copy. I still have the one from the days I was looking for a full-time job as a coder. That’s not the case anymore. These days, I’m a digital writer with a part-time coding job.
#2. More recent “Start Here.” The “Start Here,” on my About, dates back to my full-time coding days, with only tutorials. Google and AI have killed tutorials. And I’m not writing as many coding tutorials anymore.
With metrics from other platforms, I follow POSSE, it’s time to update it with my most liked content.
#3. New tags. This started as a coding blog. Five years ago, my first post was a coding tutorial. Over time, it became my small corner, where I write about almost anything.
#5. On this date widget. Sometimes I’ve written “On This Date” posts, like this one and this one. I write about the posts from past years written on the same date. I’d like to create a small widget to automate that. Under every post show 2 posts from previous and following years.
This blog started as a coding notebook, but now it’s my small corner of the web.
I’ve changed what a post is. It used to be tutorials. I spent time designing covers with Canva and picking images from Unsplash. I wanted it to look like a “real” blog. Those days, around 2022, I shared my posts on LinkedIn to boost traffic and get attention.
But writing daily posts left no time for covers and images. To stay consistent, I simplified my approach and adopted some rules. I first shared them here and here, but now I’m updating them:
#1. Write short pieces. You don’t have to write breakdowns or 2,000-word posts. If it’s longer than a tweet, publish it. A good headline plus some sentences works. A 10-idea list works. Some random thoughts are worth publishing.
#4. If you miss a day, write two posts the next day.
#5. Use your posts multiple times. Repost them on another platform. Use them as book chapters. Share shorter versions on social media. You can steal from yourself.
So I watched the rest of the season with my writer’s glasses on, here are some of the devices I noticed—No spoilers:
Increasing tension in every episode. The enemy is using the same strategy the Brits used in them during the Cold War. Each episode follows one of the steps.
Plot twist. The innocent turns out to be not that innocent.
Ending episode with revelation. One episode ends without any dialog or action scene, but with a text message.
Connecting elements. A box full of souvenirs and a tape recorders show up in screen, connecting the plot between episodes.
The season ends connecting with the first episode. One of the protagonists makes a phone call, following up a conversation from the first episode.
Make you hate a character. That’s not the villain, but a protagonist used as an “useful idiot.” You just hate it by the end of the season. Give characters some life.
But then I realized I didn’t have enough quotes. I needed at least ten. I didn’t want to Google or ChatGPT for quotes and get the same quotes every motivational post uses. It was too late to read or surf the web looking for quotes.
