Re:How to Become a Great JavaScript Developer
by JamesBarney on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @11:24PM
(#9736685)
I think of books/knowledge as an experience accelerant. One could set a log on fire and it will burn, but it will burn a 'hek of a lot faster when liquid oxygen is poured onto it. Books do the same thing for practice. You'll get there one day with practice but you'll get there much faster when you're practicing under the influence of performance enhancing books.
One example from my own experience is Estimating.
It's something we all do, week in, week out. Yet there are still plenty of developers with years of experiences who delivery poor estimates week in, week out. I was one of these poor souls when I started developing. I would spend countless nights up late trying to finish a feature I promised someone else would be delivered yesterday.
So I did what my grandpa always recommended and I picked up a book, Steve McConnell's Software Estimation : The Black Art. And it taught me all types of tricks like making sure to break tasks into the smallest possible pieces.(Along with many other things. Seriously by this book, and every book Steve McConnell has written)
Maybe I would have eventually figured out tips like these on my own. But instead of having to wait to practice breaking up tasks into smaller more estimatable chunks, I got a 5 year head start and quickly was able to surpass many coworkers who had more years of experience but had spent less time in a book.
And now I can spend those late night posting on hacker news and not writing code trying to catch up for work :P.
TL;DR : Books are awesome. I read one once and I am a better estimator for it. And being a better estimator lets me spend more time on Hacker News. So if you wanna spend more time on hacker news, read a book.
One example from my own experience is Estimating.
It's something we all do, week in, week out. Yet there are still plenty of developers with years of experiences who delivery poor estimates week in, week out. I was one of these poor souls when I started developing. I would spend countless nights up late trying to finish a feature I promised someone else would be delivered yesterday.
So I did what my grandpa always recommended and I picked up a book, Steve McConnell's Software Estimation : The Black Art. And it taught me all types of tricks like making sure to break tasks into the smallest possible pieces.(Along with many other things. Seriously by this book, and every book Steve McConnell has written)
Maybe I would have eventually figured out tips like these on my own. But instead of having to wait to practice breaking up tasks into smaller more estimatable chunks, I got a 5 year head start and quickly was able to surpass many coworkers who had more years of experience but had spent less time in a book.
And now I can spend those late night posting on hacker news and not writing code trying to catch up for work :P.
TL;DR : Books are awesome. I read one once and I am a better estimator for it. And being a better estimator lets me spend more time on Hacker News. So if you wanna spend more time on hacker news, read a book.