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 was part of Ruben Blades’ speech when receiving the 2026 Billboard Icon Award.
Sorry, I found out by doomscrolling on Instagram.
In my defense, sometimes it gives me inspiration for ideas—like this one.
After that line, he started to mentioned a list of singers, producers, and orchestras who bet on him.
I’m not an icon, but I’ve received help from lots of people to get to where I’m at in my career.
One day, someone made an introduction for my first job.
Someone gave me a chance when I had zero experience.
Someone made another introduction when I was fired from my first job.
Someone made me sit next to him to mentor me.
Someone referred me to my highest-paying job.
Someone set aside time from his work agenda to give me advice.
Someone gave me another chance when I had a huge gap on my CV.
Those are the ones I remember from the top of my head.
I’ve never had the opportunity to say thanks to most of them.
To their eyes, their help was maybe a small act of kindness without importance.
But for me, they were defining moments in my career.
Take the time to say thank and do something small for someone today.
If this lesson resonates, 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.
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. A case against syntax obsession. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.
To improve my sleep, I ran an experiment before going to bed.
It was from one of Bryan Johnson’s videos where I learn to reduce my heart rate before sleeping.
That’s why I did for a week.
I measured my heart rate every 30 minutes:
After some breaths to find my baseline.
Then after some relaxing activities, like journaling, meditation, and reading.
I try to balance between non-fiction and fiction. But these days, I’m more into non-fiction books, especially about physical and mental health, and well-being in general. In the last quarter, I’ve read a fortress about it: Emotional Intelligence, Brain Wash, Sleep.
WHERE - Where do you prefer to read?
As a hack to read more books, I leave books on my kitchen table. So I found myself reading after breakfast as part of my morning routine.
WHEN - What time of day do you prefer to read?
I balance between non-fiction in the morning, when my energy is at its peak, and fiction before going to bed to unplug.
WHY - Why is your favourite book your favourite book?
I don’t have A favorite books. To answer this, I’d have to do it per categories:
For personal development, I’d go with Choose Yourself, the raw failure stories and the idea of taking care as a first step to choose oneself.
For finance, I’d go with The Richest Man in Babylon. It’s the format itself: a fables instead of a boring list of facts and recommendations.
A book that took me into a fascinating world
I read mostly non-fiction, not too many fascinating worlds, apart from our own worlds/heads. But I have on my reading list The Lord of the Rings.
A book that made me cry
It’s not a popular one, but I co-wrote with my sister a book to honor our mom’s memory: Nuestros Recuerdos in Spanish. She wrote a good-bye letter to my mom I can’t read. Every time I do it, I can’t help by cry.
A book that was thoughtful and profound
Ecclesiastes from the Bible. OMG! It reads like the memories of an eccentric millionaire. Someone who wasted his entire life amassing wisdom and fortune, just to find out it was pointless. Of course, with lots of drops of wisdom on every page.
A “comfort” book, read and re-read many times
Recently, I re-read Love in Times of Cholera. I read it back in school, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. Probably one of favorites by Gabriel García Márquez. I should have added it to my answer about favorite books.
Bonus - How do you go about selecting what you will read next?
I don’t have a clear strategy. I like to follow my curiosity or goals. These days, I’m interested in sleep, so that’s what I’m reading about in next months… and I like to write in the blank page of a book a list of all books mention inside it… and Ryan Holiday’s YouTube channel.
From time to time, I pack my best ideas into short and actionable books. If you’re curious, you can find them here.
This way, when you’re done eating, you can steal a few minutes from your routine to pick and read a book.
That’s the perfect excuse to reduce your scrolling and pause to ease your digestion.
Win-win for your body, mind, and spirit.
