How I am trying to become a better developer
I always wondered what it’s like in the brain of a senior Engineer who could build an application from scratch. To take everything from the backend to the front end and produce a product that adds value to people’s lives. It feels like a superpower. It is a superpower, but not everyone can build something valuable from scratch.
So, one question remains, How could anyone become a better developer and produce value for others?
In this blog, I will try to break down two concepts, that I have learned to become a better developer. I am trying to adopt them consistently in my day-to-day life, and so can you. Let’s start understanding them.
Trick 1: Following the Basics:
When I started learning Android Development, I skimmed through the basics of Kotlin. I did not consider it as important as understanding the basics of Android Development. Turns out I was completely wrong. Most of the code that we write is not about the basics of Android or the functional features of Android. It is mostly about making features which are scalable, maintainable and testable.
If we want to make something scalable, maintainable and testable, the focus shifts from the feature to structuring the code. The structure of the code comes from knowing the basics of your language, and in the case of Android development, it is Kotlin.
Certain things become more efficient if we understand the basics of our language. Let’s try to take an example. In Kotlin, if we are not aware of “Generics”, then we would make the same type of functions again and again for different data types. Let’s take one more example, if we are aware of extension functions, it makes a repeated task so much easier to tackle.
Therefore, understanding the basics of Kotlin is essential to make a maintainable, scalable and testable app.
So, I regularly go back to basics and brush them up. That helps me write more efficient code.
Trick 2: Being too impatient:
I am too impatient, most people of my age are, and it is a part of our culture. Most people will try to achieve a week’s worth of progress in 1 day and then get too burnt out to work again. To solve this problem I made a rule with myself. Whatever I am doing, I will try to be as thorough as possible. This rule helped me have a clear understanding of my code base or whatever I was learning.
Let me give you an example, If a client wants to add a feature into the app. An impatient developer will start directly coding and that is exactly what I did. I did not understand the repercussions of my code in the codebase. A senior developer would first try to understand how the new feature interacts and impacts the old features. If any code is removed or commented will it have an impact on the previous feature? A senior developer will always have answers to these problems. I understand not everything can be mapped before we start coding. But, we should try to have a basic layout of how the new feature interacts with the old one and then start coding.
These are 2 tricks that I am following to become a better developer. If I have written something please forgive me and correct me down below.
Thank you for your most precious thing, your time
Your Captain (the Commute)
Hitesh Kohli
