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.
That’s what Tim Ferriss discovered when he looked at his spreadsheets.
The smoking gun: ChatGPT’s release around 2022, when his sales started to decrease.
And that’s the landscape for a best-selling author.
Now imagine being a mere mortal without Tim’s reach.
Here are some of the changes Tim is making—and how I’m stealing them:
Rely on personal stories
“For my books, at least, the secret sauce is in the sequencing—the logical ordering of things—plus the deeply personal stories that actually catalyze people to change long-standing habits.”
LLMs can spit out facts, but they’ll never create personal stories.
As Maria Popova said, “AI can’t suffer.”
It can’t have human experience.
Love, hate, pride, resentment…
That’s how we can fight back.
With my books, the best reward has been reading comments like “it feels like a conversation” or “refreshing, given how much AI slop has populated the internet.”
Those are the reviews that make my day.
“I’d rather write books for 10,000 people who are genuinely changed by them than crank out short-form videos for 10 million people who forget about them within days or minutes.”
The other day, a fiction author I followed on LinkedIn shared her new strategy:
Going to TikTok or BookTok.
Just like Tim, I’d rather write books for a few than dance on TikTok.
Maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel to go over my posts.
But writing is my way to go, even if only one person reads.
The best place is the one you can sustain over time.
Build a tribe
“Find your 1,000 True Fans. If you started off doing this well but have meandered, it’s time to revisit. Get very clear on who those 1,000 people are.”
1,000 fans? That sounds distant.
And followers aren’t true fans.
To build my tribe, I’m writing for one person: my past self.
I’m writing the books I wish I had.
I’m leaving breadcrumbs as I document my life.
For anyone just like me years ago.
Stealing means blending your sources into something new: an artistic smoothie.
Not that I consider my writing “art,” but here are 7 writers I’ve stolen from:
Before getting seriously into writing, Seth was the first blogger I followed and studied.
I’ve borrowed his concept of a “post”:
A headline and a couple of sentences are enough to publish.
After finding his blog, I didn’t feel the need to write SEO-optimized guides anymore.
When I’m tempted to quit blogging, I remember Seth sharing about his 10,000th post.
After reading some of his books, I adopted concise, self-contained chapters.
That was the inspiration for Street-Smart Coding Manifesto.
#4. Austen Kleon.
Austen was the writer who taught me to steal.
He wrote Steal Like An Artist:
So I’m stealing from another thief.
No shame in admitting it.
After reading two of his books, I stole his book structure.
Each book is 10 ideas, one idea per chapter, with doodles and drawings.
Its back cover lists those 10 ideas.
The first draft of Street-Smart Coding Manifesto is done, at 4,880 words.
I already did a first pass of editing, looking for typos. (No matter how often I reread a draft, I always fear typos.) Next pass is to remove duplication and simplify ideas.
As usual, here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. Preorder your digital copy today—starting at just $1—and become a coder who stands out beyond syntax. If you’d like to support the work, contribute $5 or more and I’ll thank you in the Acknowledgments.
The most popular posts were often the ones I spent less time editing.
Some were only to avoid breaking the chain.
The ones I poured my soul into resonated less.
Too much tweaking dilutes the real message and hides your true voice.
Maybe that’s why rants go viral and invite replies.
They feel raw and authentic.
From the inverse effort effect, not every post is a winner.
But unread posts still count: as practice, as a data point, as one time capsule entry.
Definitely not time wasted.
Likes and attention are tempting.
I’ve questioned if a blog is the right place to be.
Writers I follow on social media have already moved to Substack.
Everybody seems to be thriving there.
Sometimes blog aggregators make me rush to count votes each morning.
Analytics, votes, replies, mentions…
“How did my posts do yesterday?”
Every afternoon, I get outside to breathe fresh air and stretch my legs.
I’ve noticed how my mood changes when I do it.
Even if that’s just to walk around my block.
Maybe I’m just convincing myself to keep walking.
I leave my phone behind every time.
On Sundays, I go analog.
To capture ideas, I use old receipts and a tiny pencil that fits into my wallet.
I’ve learned not to rely on my phone for notes.
Paper doesn’t run out of battery.
Those walks have inspired most of my posts.
For the last 100 posts, I’ve published more stories from small life moments.
Not keeping a phone in my pocket makes me notice the world.
Who would have thought it?
Voice
Beyond walking, the last 100 posts felt different.
A post doesn’t feel like an assignment anymore.
It feels more like a spark to capture.
Some sparks need more words.
Others just a couple of sentences.
