Ask HN: I'm a self-taught programmer, what am I likely missing

Re:Ask HN: I'm a self-taught programmer, what am I likely mi... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @06:21PM (#28766467)

I'm self-taught. (OK, I had one class in high school, and one in college. Nobody has ever hired me because of those classes.)

Things I've had to learn:

  - Big O notation and what it means
  - UML, at least parts of it
  - SQL
  - git
  - gdb

I am not expert at any of these. I've learned enough to get by.

And that's kind of my philosophy. It's like just-in-time learning. I learn what I need to be able to do what I need to do. I haven't bothered to grind leetcode or anything. I let the job tell me what I need, and I learn that. (I do also kind of keep an eye on what else is going on, so that every five years or so, I try to learn the one thing that's going to matter most for my employability in the future.)

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Re:Ask HN: I'm a self-taught programmer, what am I likely mi... by jonplackett on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @06:35PM (#28766595)

Thanks, I've never heard of Big O or UML so that's just the kind of thing I was hoping would come up. I have the exact same philosophy as you, constant learning but to always achieve a goal. Makes learning always fun (even when massively frustrating).

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