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.

Friday Links: Big change, fake 7zip, and mourning our craft

Hey there.

Here are 4 links worth sharing this week:

#1. Something big is already happening. AI may not be disrupting markets, like most CEOs claim. But it’s definitely changing job descriptions. Saving is one step to prepare.

#2. Someday we will tell our grandkids that dad once wrote code by hand. We’re the last in a generation of coders. Now is the time to mourn our craft (4min).

#3. A fake 7-Zip download turned PCs into zombie machines (10min). It all started with the wrong url. We’re still the weakest link.

#4. Postman from beloved API client to an “everything” app (5min). It’s become “a completely feature-creeped product.”

And in case you missed it, I’ve been writing on my blog about my social media free week (1min). Here are my day 1 (2min) and day 2 (1min) updates. In the meantime, I’ve picked two books and worked on another book project. (This won’t be about coding. More updates soon!)

(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding, 30 lessons to help you code like a pro. From Googling to clear communication, it covers the lessons you don’t learn in tutorials. It’s now out on Kindle and paperback on Amazon.

Until next Friday. Keep coding smartly

Cesar

Day Four Without Social Media: Real Connection

On my fourth day without social media, I noticed how email has reshaped my morning.

I know I should protect my sacred hours by staying away from distractions first thing in the morning. Anyways…

Checking my email for health insurance paperwork changed my mood. And soon I was thinking about my book pages stats and sales. They’re not a feed, but as addictive as social media. I lost track of time checking stats.

Avoiding feeds was easier when I closed my laptop and went to a cafe to chat with my family. It wasn’t just coffee. And by choosing a local cafe, we supported our community over major chains.

We embraced social media’s promise of connecting us via the internet. But we’ve forgotten to truly connect in real life.

TIL: How to Remove a File From a Git Commit

I’ve hired AI as my code reviewer.

When I write code, AI reviews it. For that, I feed Copilot with a diff to review. But I always have to Google how to diff two branches.

To avoid Googling it every time, here it is:

$ git diff development..mybranch > diff

Today, by accident, I committed the actual diff. So I had to remove it from a commit. I wasn’t sure if I needed a git rebase or something else. I had to Google it.

Again, to avoid Googling it every time, [Source]

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1  # Undo the last commit, keeping the changes
$ # Do your thing
$ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD  # Commit, using the last message

Et voilà!

Day Two Without Social Media (And Two Lessons On Financial Freedom)

Dear diary:

Today was my second day without social media. I’m starting to notice the changes. I took notes as the day went by and tracked my feelings.

I started reading another chapter of Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. Main lessons?

#1. Financial freedom is about time. Having more time for you. Using time to make your money work earlier and for longer.

#2. Money is infinite. We can’t make more time, but we can always make more money.

After my reading time, I joined a meeting with my contracting client.

I was so tempted to check my email or fire up LinkedIn. That’s usually what I do during long, unproductive meetings. That’s how my meeting time looked. For this one, my only contribution was, “Yes, that’s correct!”

Instead of scrolling, I took a receipt and doodled circles. I drew a big circle in the middle, then smaller ones, then smaller ones…until the page was full. That’s a drawing exercise I found the other day.

Big observation: When I feel like procrastinating, I used to scroll. Now I count to three, finish a tiny task, and sustain for five minutes.

Day One Without Social Media: What I Learned

Yesterday I began an week-long experiment: no social media, no feeds. I’m writing this at the end of the first day of the experiment.

Here’s what I noticed after one day without social media:

#1. Start with an intention. Usually before working, I check my email and log into Medium and other accounts to reply to comments. Today I didn’t need a website blocker since I started with an intention: no social media.

#2. Read more. I filled the slot before working with a book. I picked Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. Then after lunch, instead of scrolling, I kept reading another book. Yes, I read more than one book at once—One strategy to read more books.

#3. Time for side projects. With the extra time, I worked on my February book project. The first draft is ready. And after a day’s break, I’m now editing it.

#4. An alarm as reminder. The other day, I found out about the 3-alarm method. I’m using it to remind me of a “Do Nothing” time to embrace boredom.