10 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier in my Career as a Programmer

These could help fast-track your career

Danny Forest
4 min readJul 9, 2021
Photo by Adam Satria on Unsplash

It’s hard for me to believe, but I’ve been programming for about half of my life. Along the way, I’ve learned things through experience that I wish I could have learned faster.

The best programmers are way more than good coders. As such, this list doesn’t include any technical advice. Rather, it breaks myths and preaches self-development.

Here are 10 things I wish I had known earlier in my career:

1. Don’t worry about learning languages

Even if job descriptions ask for tons of experience in languages, the best programmers aren’t those that have perfected a language or knows the ins and outs of many languages. The best programmers are those who can solve problems.

2. Ditch perfection

To go from junior to mid-level and beyond, keep solving problems. It doesn’t matter if you come up with the best solution or not, as long as it works well enough.

3. Be lazy

Apply the DRY method (Don’t Repeat Yourself). If you find yourself copy+pasting code, there’s a good chance you’re doing it wrong. Create better abstractions. The better your…

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Danny Forest

Polymath. Life Optimizer. Learner. Entrepreneur. Engineer. Writer.