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.
You know you had a good day, you’ve been around people you love, doing things you love that you didn’t feel the urge of picking your phone.
Yesterday, an aunt came over after months without seeing each other. We had plenty of conversations, had lunch, talked about books, visited a local cafe, and took a walk. And when it was dinner time, I realized I had only picked my phone one or twice. I did have a good day.
To write for over 20 years, only think about tomorrow’s post.
Seth Godin, the godfather of daily blogging, said on an interview:
“I don’t post a blog post because I feel like it. I don’t post a blog post because it’s perfect. I post a blog post because it’s tomorrow.”
If you follow your interests, you won’t run out of ideas.
Of course, you won’t be interested about the same subject for over 20 or 30 years. Years ago, I was deeply interested in coding. These days, I’m more interested in building a burnout-free live. My blog reflects that. Your blog and writing will grow and evolve as you do. Mine has.
To write for yeeears, as a rule of thumb:
#1. If you only have a few sentences, write them. If they help anyone, share them.
#2. If somebody else already wrote about it, write it your way. Your stories, perspective, and voice will make it unique. Your fingerprint makes anything unique.
#3. If you aren’t absolutely certain about it, write it anyway. Once you’re certain, write about it again.
Two years! That’s how long it took me to wake up with purpose again.
A combination of factors broke me: I was at a comfortable job, I stopped exercising, I stopped blogging. I thought only my career and job title defined me, and those frustrations spread to all other areas of my life.
It was a slow process to get back up. It started with small daily actions: a digital detox, a 10-minute workout, and writing. I cover most of those habits in my book 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life.
It was the lowest, darkest moment of my life so far. Just thinking about going back to where I was makes me anxious.
Here’s what I’m doing to never burnout again:
#1. Keep a boring part-time job. Something that helps me cover my living expenses without draining all my energy. I keep my expenses under control, so a part-time job as a Software Engineer is enough. My job isn’t the most important part of my life anymore.
#2. Strength training three times a week. I follow Michael Israetel’s idea of antagonistic supersets: training unrelated pairs of muscles per set. I don’t need to spend hours at a gym doing countless exercises. A pair of dumbbells and a full-body routine at home is enough to pack some muscle and stay healthy.
#4. Publish something every day. Writing saved me from burnout. In 2024, sharing 200 words or a simple thought gave me a reason to get out of bed. Burnout came from disconnection, writing reconnected me.
#5. Have a moment of silence. A.k.a. meditation, mindfulness, or deep breathing. It helps me slow down, quiets the inner voice, and trains me to stay calm…and helps me stay away from my phone and be bored again.
#6. Read at least one page a day. My first step to recovery was to cut down all content, except for inspiring books from writers who had reinvented themselves. That’s what I wanted to do. I don’t want to wait to fall down again to go back to reading. Books are the best way to nourish the mind.
#7. Run experiments. A good paying job and its comfort zone made me sick, physically and mentally. Since then, I’m challenging myself with experiments: quick, low-cost actions that might fail, but always teach. My last experiment turned a top post into a book. These days, I’m running 30 days of Substack Notes and visiting new cafes every week in my city.
#8. Eat consciously. Burnout also brought stomach issues. I hated my job so much that I rushed to finish my tasks, skipping lunch and eating too fast. Bad idea! Everything I ate sent me to the bathroom for days. What you eat either heals you or makes you sick. So I’m eating more protein, more vegetables, less carbs, no sugar, no processed food… In the right amounts and in the right order. Being in bed or stuck to a toilet doesn’t let you accomplish anything. What we feed our minds and bodies shapes the life we live.
“I already know most of what’s in there,” my sister told me.
We were in a bookstore downtown. She picked a book about reducing inflammation. That’s something we both have been struggling with recently, for different reasons. When I asked if she wanted it, she said she’d rather skim.
If it teaches you at least one lesson, it’s a good book. And if it doesn’t teach you anything, it wasn’t for you.
Reading a book is downloading decades of experiences and lessons into hours. It’s the closest to the “I know KungFu” experience of Neo in The Matrix. Reading three books on the same subject puts you ahead of 99% of people.
I hope my books can give you at least 1 lesson worth keeping. Find them here.
