Coding is a craft, practice it!

DanielJune 1, 2023June 15, 2023

One of the best books I've recently read is The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone. It's a biographical novel about the life and work of Michelangelo Buonarroti, the Florentine renaissance sculptor.

Besides the fact that it's a delight to read the book gives you an excellent inside view into the mind of a skilled artisan. Into the obsession that leads some people to abandon their egos and pride to embark on a lifetime journey of improving their craft.

I feel coding is a craft. It's much more like woodworking, playing a musical instrument, or drawing than it is like things such as history or law.

It's not just about the intrinsic information, but also the technique and how you apply it.

And in order to get the technique right I think one should focus more on practice, not theory.

There is the 10,000 hours rule of Malcolm Gladwell. It states that the key to achieving true expertise in any skill is a matter of practicing, albeit in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours.

Make sure that you spend most of these 10,000 hours actually coding and not jumping from one tutorial to another.

Coding is a craft! You get better by first being inefficient, slow, and bad at it. Be prepared to put aside your ego when reading the critiques on a PR you created, be prepared to feel like a noob over and over and maybe most important always show up and put in the work!