The One Lesson I Wish I'd Known When I Started Coding

13 Aug 2025 #coding

A Redditor recently asked for tips to become a better programmer here. The kind of tips we wish we had known when we started coding.

I’ve been taking a few courses here and there for c# as a side language I’m learning. Curious if you know something I don’t and have tips for making other newcomers a better programmer… Lmk what you wish you could have learned earlier thst would of helped you progress faster!

I already wrote about four career lessons here. But there’s a coding lesson before those four.

Don’t obsess over syntax and programming languages.

Coding isn’t about learning every feature of a language.

You don’t need a huge list of languages. With HTML/CSS/JavaScript, one backend language, and a good amount of SQL, you have enough to make your way through the coding world.

More important than syntax and languages is thinking in terms of the product we’re building. Are we building what users really need? How will they use our product?

That attitude will make you stand out in any team. It will save you from building the wrong features or optimizing for a scale you won’t have. And it will open doors to climb the corporate ladder faster.

The best programmers aren’t the ones who know every reserved keyword or quirk of a language, but those who know how to ask the right questions and figure out answers.

After 10+ years, I’ve learned that the more senior you become, the less it’s about code and the more about your communication skills.