I'm Launching Street-Smart Coding: 30 Lessons to Help You Code Like a Pro (the Roadmap I Wish I Had Starting Out)

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…)

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.

Now they’re yours.

Get your copy of Street-Smart Coding here and skip the years of trial and error. For launch week only: Pay what you want—even $1 or $2.

The Secret to Generating Good Ideas

Good ideas start as bad ones. You just need enough to find the least bad.

#1.

Tim Ferriss had different titles for his book, 4-Hour Work Week. Probably, there were good and bad titles among those.

He tested titles with ads and picked the one with the most clicks. He started with bad ideas, iterated, then picked the right one.

A similar story with James Altucher and Choose Yourself.

#2.

Last year, I attended a book writing workshop that drilled the value of bad ideas.

One of the tasks was coming up with title ideas. One of the participants had an immigration practice helping people move to Australia. While he waited for the perfect title, I suggested Aussie Job and follow-ups like Aussie Colleges and Aussie Marriages.

I don’t know which title he chose or if he even wrote the book. I just checked Amazon and there’s no Aussie Job. Insert shrugging emoji.

As a fan of 10-idea lists, that exercise was a piece of cake. It was just another daily prompt for ideas.

That workshop pushed me to keep writing my 10 ideas daily.

3.

Don’t wait for a perfect book title, blog post subject, or business idea.

Chasing the “perfect” idea leaves you blocked, waiting for inspiration. Aim for 10 guilt-free bad ideas. Among those you’ll find a decent one that leads you to the right idea.

Put your work out there. Show it. If people like it, they will engage with it and remember it. Otherwise, they won’t.

I’ve published over 600 posts over the years (half of them reposted on Medium and dev.to). Not every single post is a hit. Good ones stand out. People like, comment, and share them. Others go without “fame or glory.”

Then the work is to have more bad ideas, find the least bad, and share them. Rinse and repeat.

Sharif Shameem shared a similar idea. He calls it, Aadil’s Law, named after a friend:

The amount of stupidity you’re willing to tolerate is directly proportional to the quality of ideas you’ll eventually produce

Be willing to look stupid. Write 10 bad ideas every day and let the good ones emerge.

Writing 10 ideas every day has been so valuable that I made it part of 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too Write them daily and watch your life change.

We're Helping AI and Robots Replace Us

Take public transportation at rush hour. You’ll notice a clear pattern.

More than half the people are heads down, headphones on, scrolling.

If we don’t take care of our health, we’ll be depressed, sleep-deprived, deaf, people with the attention span of a fish.

Taking care of our health is the first step towards reinvention. After commuting, scrolling, junk food, and poor sleep, we lack the energy and drive to be creative and have new ideas. That’s when AI will eat us alive, when we’re too drained to imagine and create.

Reading, eating healthy foods, and sleeping well isn’t just self-care. It’s an act of resistance.

Friday Links: AI engineers, prompt injection, and job market

Hey there.

Here are 5 links I thought were worth sharing this week:

#1. We all might become AI engineers (6min), but we still need to know what to build and how it should work. AI needs hands on the wheel.

#2. AI speeds up coding, but there are plenty of coding activities that aren’t typing (2min). There’s still work for humans.

#3. Last week, another npm package was infected. The interesting part? Someone stole the npm token by injecting a prompt into a GitHub issue (10min). SQL injection isn’t the #1 vulnerability anymore.

#4. If you’re a C# coder using Dapper, be aware of data type conversions that might be slowing down your queries (8min).

#5. If you’ve had a hard time finding a job. You’re not alone. Hiring is as bad as during the pandemic (1min).

Last week, while migrating a legacy app, I wrote about my adventures with Entity Framework Core joining tables (5min) and with Blazor building a component for a HTML editor (4min).

(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too. This book shares 10 small daily ideas that create big change. I adopted most of them while recovering from burnout

If you’re ready to start small and see big change, check it out.

Until next Friday. Stay coding smartly!

Cesar

The #1 Health Tip From the Guy Obsessed With Living Forever

If you could only do one thing for your health, it should be sleep.

Brian Johnson, the guy trying to live forever, teaches in his videos and interviews to be a professional sleeper.

He’s right when he says nobody teaches us to sleep.

For better sleep, build your life around sleep:

• Have dinner earlier
• Remove screens before bed
• Adjust your room temperature
• Turn off lights in your room

Beyond the basics, Brian’s recent videos taught me to aim for a lower heart rate before sleep. Try journaling, taking deep breaths, or meditation. Slow down before going to bed.

Staying late for my writing streak taught me rest is the best productivity hack. Coffee can’t fix a bad night of sleep. So go to sleep!

TIL: How to Set Up a Unilateral One-to-One Relationship with Entity Framework Core

In another episode of Adventures with Entity Framework while migrating a legacy app…

Entity Framework Core only populated a child entity on one item in a result. To honor the 20-minute rule, and for my future self, here’s what I found:

TL;DR: You don’t need the WithOne() and HasForeignKey() when configuring the relationship.

#1. Let’s create an optional one-to-one relationship.

Let’s create a Movie and an Award table.

USE Movies;
GO
CREATE TABLE Awards (
    Id INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1),
    Name NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE Movies (
    Id INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1),
    Name NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    AwardId INT NULL /* <-- Optional. No FK here */
);
GO

Since the relationship is optional, the AwardId is nullable. This type dictates what JOIN Entity Framework Core uses.

#2. Configure the one-to-one relationship

Let’s configure the relationship using HasOne() and WithOne().

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace LookMaWhatEntityFrameworkDoes;

public class Award
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int? AwardId { get; set; }
    //       ^^^
    // Optional

    public Award Award { get; set; }
}

public class MovieContext : DbContext
{
    public MovieContext(DbContextOptions<MovieContext> options) : base(options)
    {
    }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        modelBuilder
            .Entity<Movie>()
            .HasOne(m => m.Award)
            .WithOne()
            .HasForeignKey<Movie>(m => m.AwardId)
            .OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.Restrict);
    }

    public DbSet<Movie> Movies { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Award> Awards { get; set; }
}

To verify Copilot’s answer, I went through the official docs here.

#3. Retrieve movies and their awards

And now, let’s create an award, add two movies, and retrieve them to check their awards.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace LookMaWhatEntityFrameworkDoes;

[TestClass]
public class MovieTests
{
    [TestMethod]
    public async Task AllAwardsPlease()
    {
        const string connectionString = $"Server=(localdb)\\MSSQLLocalDB;Database=Movies;Trusted_Connection=True;";

        var options = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<MovieContext>()
            .UseSqlServer(connectionString)
            .LogTo(Console.WriteLine)
            .Options;

        // 1. Let's create an "Oscar"
        using (var context = new MovieContext(options))
        {
            context.Awards.Add(new Award
            {
                Name = "Oscar"
            });
            context.SaveChanges();
        }

        // 2. Let's create two movies that have won an "Oscar"
        using (var context = new MovieContext(options))
        {
            var oscar = await context.Awards.FirstOrDefaultAsync();
            Assert.IsNotNull(oscar);

            context.Movies.AddRange(
                new Movie
                {
                    Name = "Forrest Gump",
                    AwardId = oscar.Id
                },
                new Movie
                {
                    Name = "Titanic",
                    AwardId = oscar.Id
                }
            );
            context.SaveChanges();
        }

        // 3. Let's retrieve all movies, expecting to have an Award
        using (var context = new MovieContext(options))
        {
            var movies = await context.Movies
                                // Imagine more filters here			
                                .Include(m => m.Award)
                                // ^^^^^
                                // Yes, I'm including it here
                                .ToListAsync();

            foreach (var movie in movies)
            {
                Assert.IsNotNull(movie);
                Assert.IsNotNull(movie.Award);
                //     ^^^^^
                // Assert.IsNotNull failed.
                // Play sad trumpet sound.
            }
        }
    }
}

Sorry for the foreach inside the Assert. That’s not a good idea. But I’m lazy and I’m taking too long writing this.

Yes, it fails. Play sad trumpet, please. The second movie’s award isn’t populated. Arrggg!

My fault!

#4. Ignore WithOne()

Since I’m setting an unidirectional relationship, one movie/one award/multiple movies, only configuring HasOne() is enough.

Using WithOne() was telling Entity Framework Core that one award could only belong to one movie. And that’s not the case here.

public class MovieContext : DbContext
{
    public MovieContext(DbContextOptions<MovieContext> options) : base(options)
    {
    }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        // Remove the entire configuration
		// Or,		
        modelBuilder
            .Entity<Movie>()
            .HasOne(m => m.Award);
            // ^^^^^
            // Just this
    }

    public DbSet<Movie> Movies { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Award> Awards { get; set; }
}

And since I’m following default naming conventions, I could even delete the configuration. Ahh, Cascade sets to null, which is fine here.

Yes, the right answer is to do nothing.

Et voilà!

For debugging and problem-solving tips, read Street-Smart Coding. Those two skills are more relevant now in the era of AI-assisted coding.