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.
Do you have a book for parents raising two teenager girls?, a guy said.
He was in the next aisle at a bookstore. I was looking for some Christmas presents. I had on my hands Clear Thinking and The Cat Who Saved Books. I was looking for a third book to take advantage of the month’s promotion. The cheapest of the three was free.
The guy kept walking the aisles. An employee started to recommend titles: Think and Grow Rich, The 5:00 Club… Then his daughter said, “I’ve seen this book…I don’t know the title, but its cover is a little brain made of 1-dollar bills…“
“The Psychology of Money,” I said laughing. That moment I knew she was my kind of reading mate. And I knew his after was doing something good: surrounding them with books.
Then I saw it: sometimes a good book covers does all the heavy work for your book. Design your cover so a 13-year-old girl, probably not interested in your subject, could remember your book.
It’s working every day,
Putting bread in your table,
Having a family,
Liking what you do, getting paid for some money for it, and feeling at ease with it.
That’s a true successful person.
A lesson I heard in a Sunday sermon that made me nod in agreement and realize I’m not that far to being successful.
#2. What’s worse than spending all day in meetings? Well, here are 12 nightmares every coder faces. Be careful it any of them makes you wake up.
#3. You spent two days preparing for your next interview, just to find out your interviewer, who never asks your name, wants to test your IQ and have your brain scanned to see if you’re smart to work with him.
#4.Do you have a minute? When your boss texts you that, you don’t know if it’s going to be a new priority or your turn to leave.
Booo! Happy Halloween.
Don’t worry Street-Smart Coding won’t scare you at all. That’s the roadmap I wish I had on my journey to become senior
One year ago, it felt like a distant goal. Today, over 90 devs are coding smarter. You’ve probably started getting these emails after grabbing your copy.
If you’ve read the book, I’d appreciate a quick review on Gumroad, Amazon, or Goodreads. That’d help more devs code smartly.
Maybe it’s time to start thinking about a new edition.
Announcement: After 1 year, Street-Smart Coding became a 4-part series.
I’m working on the third book. A short and actionable guide to help you leverage AI without becoming dependent on it. I’m calling it: Street-Smart Coding in the Age of AI. You can preorder your copy starting at just $1.
As usual, here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Preorder your copy of Street-Smart Coding in the Age of AI. A short and actionable guide to leverage AI without losing your skills.
It isn’t a New York Times best-seller… yet?
It doesn’t pay my rent… yet?
It’s just another tiny piece of content filling the Internet ether.
But it’s a big small win for me.
That’s why I broke my weekly routine and went out to eat a slice of pizza or two.
To make it more symbolic, I paid for it with the book sales.
By the way, I ate some salad and protein before, to control the glucose spikes.
Even I took some pictures to remember it.
Some say, happiness is about the journey, not the destination.
Just make sure to celebrate those small moments along it.
I’m doing nothing the rest of the day off to keep celebrating.
If you’re curious, you’ll find Street-Smart Coding and the rest of my books here.
