DISCLAIMER: Learning faster isn’t about skipping topics and being half-boiled in the domain. So, don’t think I am gonna show you some shortcuts. Instead, I am gonna show you ways to put more effort than you normally do in the same amount of time which will also teach you a lot in minimum time.
In recent years it seems like everyone just wants to hop into programming whether for their own projects, to show off, or just thinking CS is easy for some reason. This article should be the general idea of how to learn any CS topics as every topic can go deep wild and these steps should help you learn those faster.
Have a meaningful reason
Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash
It doesn't matter what you are going to do, if your reason is weak you won't be able to achieve it. Have meaningful reasons like expanding your knowledge or building a startup or a simple app or becoming a freelancer. If you think knowing programming will make you look cool, reconsider it… It's just a line of work just like carpeting, driving, and cooking, it doesn't matter what you know but what you can do with the knowledge and that is why you need to have a meaningful reason.
Also, you cant build a Facebook at end of a coding BootCamp I mean, with the current technologies like AWS, Firebase, GCP you can build a Facebook if you put in the work but again it destroys the core principle “Have a meaningful reason” like Facebook is developing since 2004 with multiple developers and thinking you can build all of it in a single sitting isn't practical.
If you are still reading this article, GOOD JOB Now continue to the main topic.
Don’t schedule
You don’t schedule something that you really love to or would die to do. Like you don’t schedule to surprise your girlfriend or you don’t schedule to pet your dog.. you do these whenever you feel like it. Just like that, you should learn to program whenever you feel like it and only when you feel to learn, do not force yourself… Again remember, you don’t force yourself to do something that rewards you.
You can schedule like “I will learn this after work” but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn it in your free office hours. Also just because you are scheduled to learn after work doesn’t mean you have to do it, if you wanna take a break, just take a break. Taking a break doesn’t slow you down, it increases productivity and the eagerness to learn, this is far better than tryharding too much and losing interest in the subject.
Try to be perfect
From the starting days of learning, try to learn the topics thoroughly. Again, just TRY, I know you can't be perfect and that’s why just try. This helps you reach an in-depth knowledge on stuffs that normally tutorials cant fit in one session. How do you do this?
When you learn a new keyword or topic in the tutorial, go to google and try to spend 5–10 minutes researching about it, this helps you catch bugs earlier.
Follow the official style guide
Try to write beautiful code from the beginning. Don’t just learn one style guide and use it in every programming language… Follow the official style guides and use them accordingly and follow them strictly and further use linters to assist you. For god’s sake write code for yourself and not for satan’s funeral.
Learn one-liners and tricks
Learn simple or stupid tricks in that particular language just to show off to your friend(programming friend). These can really put you on an edge over other nerds and will give you a better understanding of how the language works and a bit of ego too.
Compare the knowledge
Compare the keywords and syntax with other programming languages(if you already know one). This is simultaneous builds knowledge for both languages and will give you a better understanding of which one to use for which types of task. Coz people tend to lose their mind over python and C++ and what to learn first and what to use in their projects.
Be in interview mode
Once you learn a new topic, go to google and type interview questions. E.g., hoisting in JavaScript interview questions.
And spend 5 minutes answering the question. Then look at the answer and evaluate how correct your understanding was. And do this on a couple of websites and give a score for yourself and do this every time you feel weak in certain topics. This is not just for excelling in the interview but also for a better understanding of topics and introduces you to more in-depth information that you never knew existed.
And please use google, even while trying to answer the interview question use google to find answers. You need to learn to use google as much as possible and NO, you are not going to become dumb by googling.
Project
Without a project idea learning, a particular technology is useless. Like why would you even learn how to work on linux when you are so used to other operating systems. This is why most people want to learn linux but they can't because the reason for it isn't strong enough to drive them. You shouldn't need to learn linux unless you want to, after all, it's just an OS and you should learn which OS suits your need.
The same goes for everything, if your goal is just to flex about what you know instead of using what you know, you definitely not gonna be able to learn it.
This doesn't apply to people who are looking for a job as I cant tell you to plan a project before learning as you are in a hurry. On this case, you aren't really doing this for yourself and why bother if you do it good or otherwise.
If you are reading this line, we just eliminated 80% of people. With that out of the way, let's continue.
If you started learning a language because your project demands it, then you are on a good track. Otherwise make a project which implements everything you learned in the past week and try to make a product of it (it doesn't have to be a million-dollar product, just anything useful). And do this every week until you get a real project idea to implement your knowledge.
Forgive me if the last section was harsh, but it is what it is. If you are learning a programming language in a hope that someday you will find a use for it… Just read that again and ask yourself is it fine?
Final words
Being a programmer/developer requires your mind to be in control just as any other job, you don't just drink coffee, put on a hoodie, and make the keyboard go brrrrrrrrr. Just like any human speaking language is incomplete without an accent, you need to know how to use a particular language and where to use it. Making a mistake here will bite you in the future.
Pro tip: Use dark mode IDE
Stay safe, Adios
Cover image by Shiro hatori on Unsplash