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.
Waiting for the muses, I tried a course called Write 4 a day. The first exercise was to write by hand for four minutes, whatever comes to mind, without judgment.
I had nothing to lose. So I tried it.
This exercise is like a 4-minute version of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, at anytime. It works: I’m writing these lines.
If you’re blocked, grab pen and write for 4 minutes. That’s all you need to unlock your words.
For years, I didn’t have a career plan. I jumped from job to job feeling something was missing. OK, when I say “jump,” I mean fired, bored, and laid off. That was my most painful lesson. It cost me my health at the lowest point.
A “plan” sounds like a blueprint with every career scenario figured out in advance.
Nobody starts with a perfect plan. The early stages of our careers are about discovery, experimentation, and building skills while learning to navigate the corporate world.
Instead of “plan,” think of an intention: a guiding principle that helps you decide whether to stay or move on.
There’s always luck, setbacks, and resets. It’s impossible to account for all of them in a “plan.” But an intention pushes you to act instead of waiting.
Here’s how an intention helps you in practice.
If your intention is money, a couple of years without raises or bonuses should push you to move. That’s not the job that will fill your pockets. Maybe a better choice would be joining a startup in early stages.
If your intention is growing a network, sitting in a cubicle isn’t the best idea. A better role might be DevRel, evangelist, or consultant, positions that takes you out of your cubicle.
Money was just an example. It could be gaining leadership experience, climbing the ladder, or learning opportunities.
Use your career intention as your flashlight. Otherwise, wait to leave only when bored, fired, or burned out. I wish someone had told me that when I started my coding career. It would have saved lots of headaches. Set your intention today.
If you liked these lessons, you’re going to like, Career Lessons From the Trenches, my free 7-day email course where I distill 10+ years of career lessons into 7 short emails–to help you navigate your coding career.
At first, I only wrote when I had something to share. That was once or twice a year.
Then, I challenged myself to write every other week. I was playing the SEO game. I packed headlines with keywords and wrote posts to land on Google’s first page.
Yesterday, I shared 5 Ideas on growth and money. To build on that, here are 4 fresh ideas about content creation, monetization, and networking from last week:
#1. Run a $1/month club
Monetizing your content doesn’t have to be complicated.
If sales make you nervous, offer a simple $1/month membership. No fancy tiers. No paywalls. Just $1. Manuel Moreale made the concept popular. Now there’s a club of $1/month creators. That doesn’t sound that bad at all. Maybe I’ll join the club.
#2. Follow ROOTS
I follow POSSE, aka using your website as your content hub.
But last week I learned about ROOTS, Return Old Online Things to your own Site.
If you’ve guest posted or collaborated, archive those posts on your site. I have at least 4 or 5 posts that I could “root.”
#3. A 90-day note
Losing my job has taught me the value of networking. Most job applications hide behind phone calls and recommendations.
If you wait until you lose your job to network, it’s too late. Why not keep in touch with colleagues and friends with a quarterly email? It’s like catching up at a party, but via email.
To unclutter my brain and take public notes, here are 5 interesting ideas I found last week:
#1. Workout using antagonistic supersets
Improving my health led me down a fitness rabbit hole. I found Dr. Michael Israetel and his YouTube channel.
Well, you don’t need to spend hours every day at the gym.
Most gym time is wasted checking your phone or waiting for machines. Two to three full-body workout sessions per week are enough to be healthy. In just 20 minutes, you can work out every major muscle group by alternating two unrelated muscle groups with minimal rest between sets.
If you’re a creator, freelancer, or “side-gigger,” instead of constantly hustling, aim to work for 2-3 hours, but daily. Short sessions force you to focus and achieve more.
#4. Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be complicated
You don’t need to worry about creating a business entity, the hustle culture, or complicated systems. Entrepreneurship is way simpler. It’s helping!
#5. Be more valuable to make more money
In Purpose and Profit, Dan Koe shares that, to make money, you have to be helpful to others since nobody will give you money in exchange for nothing. To earn more, make others value you more, solve bigger problems, or help more people.
