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.
Daniel’s line reminds me of Derek Sivers: stop consuming for the rest of the year and start creating. Because we’re born to create. And the busiest minds are the happiest.
#4. Even if alive, imagine your mentor is already dead. How would you learn from them? For my writing career, I’ve binge-watched and read James Altucher, one of my distant mentors.
I just can’t decide what to do when it comes to translated works at all. Be it old books in English translated to Spanish—or modern ones to be fair. And what about Spanish books that I could read in English, or picking between Spanish and English for books that are in a completely different language?
I’ve had the same struggle, so I came up with a reading rule:
Read non-fiction books in their original language, but fiction in my native language.
Non-fiction is a piece of cake. Writers want to get a point across without showing off about their rich vocabulary or literary devices.
That’s precisely what makes fiction challenging.
The other day, I read Angels and Demons in English to study suspense, flashbacks, and cliffhangers. I had to read it twice. The first time I underlined unknown words and guessed their meaning. Then, I revisited it with a dictionary. My copy ended up full of notes and folded corners.
I bothered to read it twice because my goal was to dissect the writing. But when reading for fun, to replace my doomscrolling, I want to enjoy the story, not stop every other sentence to look something up.
Being a bilingual speaker, I translate my own books. And I end up with slightly different books than the original versions. Find my books and their Spanish translations in my Amazon page. Books on coding and personal growth that respect your time.
This 2-hour interview made me reconsider what a good story is.
I don’t know how, but I ended up watching an interview with Matthew Dicks on storytelling.
Here’s what I learned:
#1. A story is about change over time. It’s about a transformation or realization. I believed this, then something happened, and now I believe this.
Unlike an anecdote, a story is something you will remember for days, months, or even years.
“A story are the best meals of your life.”
#2. Make them care. Nobody wants to listen what you have to say unless you give them a reason to listen.
#3. Don’t describe. Descriptions consume readers’ bandwidth. Instead, leverage people’s imagination by choosing words they can already see. People care about what you felt, what you said, and what you did.
#4. When public speaking, don’t memorize. Remember a story by thinking in terms of scenes.
In a good story, scenes are connected to each other. You can’t remove anything from the story.
“The best performer know what they’re going to say, but not exactly how”
#5. To make your stories interesting, use: stakes, suspense, surprise, and humor.
#6. Different versions of stakes in a story:
Elephant: What get people’s attention initially.
Backpack: Hopes and dreams you’re loaded with along the way.
Breadcrumbs: Clues or hints along the way.
Hourglasses: Once you have your audience, make them wait.
Crystal balls: Out-loud predictions.
Humor: To make your audience feel at ease, make them laugh in the first 30-60 seconds of your keynote.
#7. Don’t waste your openings by overexplaining. Use location, action, or wonder. Start in the middle of action. Remember BABC.
#8. To have an arc, make your beginnings opposite to your endings.
#9. To make a good trailer or teaser, make sure people understand the problem the character is facing but don’t solve the problem or let us know if the problem is going to be solved.
#10. How to improve at storytelling:
Strategically listen. Don’t just be a consumer. Instead notice why something works.
Understand what a story is. Once you do that, you’ll realize they’re everywhere.
Ask what you can say to keep the person listening. Get through the boring parts by making it suspenseful or funny.
