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.
I challenged myself to write 30 notes and 4 posts in Substack, but it cost me my sanity.
I chose Substack after being shadow-banned from Medium and, I have to admit it, I wanted some attention and book sales. But…
In past weeks, I’ve gone throught an episode of stress and anxiety. My head has been rushing with ruminating thoughts and time traveling, and trying to hit a quota of likes and comments to get subscribers and followers only added more oxygen and fuel to the fire. I was so anxious I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I needed to work hard to get back to my steady lifestyle.
I quit engaging at all, and scheduled all my notes and posts instead.
Some random numbers
In spite of my lack of engagement in the last two weeks, here are some random numbers from my experiment:
8 followers and 7 subscribers.
45 notes and 4 posts written.
6 likes on my top-2 performing notes.
5 views, 1 like, and 1 comment on my top performing post.
One. Comment. On. A. Post. OMG! That already felt like going viral.
One small daily choice that saved me from burnout:
Do something for my body, mind, and spirit every day.
True health means the three in balance.
Work on each one every day. No excuses!
That’s a simple recipe for a happy life.
Yes, I tweaked a post I already shared here on my blog. Don’t call the Internet police, please.
Some lessons
Subscriber and follower count meant almost nothing, but here are the most important bits from my experiment:
#1. No matter the application, doomscrolling is always doomscrolling… and everything shown in a screen is most likely designed to steal your attention.
#2. You don’t have to grow or make money. Don’t listen to gurus selling you growth tactics. It’s OK to grow at your own pace… or to quit.
#3. Good ideas stand on their own, without hacks.
#4. If it drains you, cut it out. Your sanity is more important than a Monopoly money next to your name on a platform.
#5. Time in front of a screen is time away from yourself and from real interaction.
I’m keeping my Substack account to distribute my long-form posts to a wider audience, but strong, mindful participation rules: Only for 1 hour a week to schedule my content. Nothing more.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. Bugs and incidents happen when there’s a flaw in the software development process. To make sure they don’t occur again, don’t share the details (5min).
#2. “Not all hobbies have to be productive,” a friend told me last week. We were talking about how AI has changed expectations at the workplace. F*ck it, and do it anyway (5min): the old way, the hard way, the slow way.
(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.
Following my reading rules, I’ve been reading two books at a time.
Here are the non-fiction books I’ve read so far:
#1.Mastery by Robert Greene.
Achieving mastery is like swimming:
You can’t do it against the current and you can’t be your own resistance.
#2.Smart Brevity by Jim VaneHei.
People don’t read, but skim.
Adapt to your reader’s consumption habits.
#3.Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspe.
Control your glucose and you’ll control your mood, weight, and cravings.
#4.Papyrus by Irene Vallejo.
Books are the best invention of man.
They won’t disappear any time soon.
#5.Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier.
The sooner you start, the less money you need to retire.
#6.Purpose and Profit by Dan Koe.
Entrepreneurship is self-help and others-help.
#7.Anything You Want by Derek Sivers.
Your business is your utopia.
You don’t have to make it grow or look corporate.
You can make it anything you want.
#8.Useful But Not True by Derek Sivers.
Your perspective is like a timezone:
It feels “real” to you, but most people have a different one.
#9.7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
Rule #5: Understand, before being understood.
Don’t just listen, but listen with empathy.
#10.Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.
You can’t control when emotions appear.
But you can control how long you experience them.
Reading Emotional Intelligence made me connect it to 7 Habits.
Which led me to adopt reading a fortress of books.
Building my fortress has taken me from 7 Habits to Emotional Intelligence to Brain Wash.
In case you’re curious, here are my books. Short and actionable books on coding and self-growth.
To slow down my ruminating thoughts, I put on my green Nike shoes and sport clothes, and went to the closest park for my daily walk.
But to avoid more overthinking, I added a twist.
I choose to pay close attention to the sounds around me.
The passing motorcycles, cars honking, kids screaming while playing soccer, some teenagers rehearsing a dance, a priest giving a sermon, or simply my footsteps on the pavement.
From time to time, I asked myself “Are you breathing?”
Then I switched my attention to my breaths.
Without even realizing it, one hour has passed and my mind already felt more quiet.
I guess I just discovered Walking meditation, a new way to slow down and calm my mind.
