How can I get better at programming?

Recently, I spoke at Cal Poly Pomona to kickstart their Hackathon, Hackpoly 2015: Hackpoly 2015 Keynote Speech – Your Roadmap to Success.

I shared my personal story then covered these key points as the basis on how to become a better programmer.

Consistent and never-ending improvement

The first thing to do would be to start with a base of principles, beginning with a Japanese philosophy called Kaizen.

What is Kaizen and why does it matter to me?

Kaizen is a philosophy of consistent and never ending improvement. To give you an example of just how important this philosophy is, I will share with you a story from a few weeks ago.

Currently, I have been driving a Jaguar for the last 3 months. Prior to that, I had an Infiniti. For as long as I have owned that Jaguar, I never touched my Infiniti. Not once, until two weeks ago. When I got behind the wheel of the Infiniti, I had absolutely no clue how to move the seats, turn on the radio, the a/c or anything. Since all the buttons are placed differently, it was as if my mind had forgotten every single way to function the vehicle.

Now why am I sharing this with you?

It’s simple. Because each day, we either grow or we die. If we practice what we are doing, we will continually get better. The moment we stop, we lose all familiarity with what we are doing. When you are writing code, you may get distracted and want to digress. But when you do, your skills will also deteriorate. So we need to stay focused on continually practicing what we do each day.

Whether you practice on your own computer or on a public network like Stack exchange or Github, get out there and continually work on improving yourself.

Desire

Now I’m sure that everyone in programming sees the huge implications of what a career in programming can do for their future. However, let’s be real some of us are in it just for the money.

Let me let you in on a little secret. If you’re in the programming career just for a huge payday, you won’t make it. Not just that, doing things solely for the money will eventually make you hate every second of what you do.

How do I know?

Because that’s what I did with my prior career in sales. Sure, I made great money. However, I hated every moment of my life. That hate for my life caused me to tumble towards a downward spiral.