Many wrong pieces of advice are being handed out on the internet by people who have never actually been developers or failed to become one or people who are just bad developers. The technologies do not define a developer/programmer.
A programmer is a problem solver. A programmer is not a person limited by his tools but is willing to put in the work and learn the tools needed to do the job. Good programmers ask questions, and best programmers ask things to be explained to them like they are idiots.
Why you may ask? It is very simple.
Distilled information coming from people with expertise is better consumed. I see people being afraid to ask questions and what is worse is then some people answer these questions in a very condescending way, and if you are that type of person, fcuk you. No, seriously.
For the people who constantly ask, “What is the best course to learn xyz” you guys are making your life very difficult. “So what do I do?” – you might be asking yourself, and the answer is very simple.
Go And Read The Official Documentation
This will not only teach you how to navigate technical documentation, but it will teach you self-reliance, and it will give you the confidence to tackle unknowns. Can’t make sense of the docs? Read again. Can’t make sense of the docs again? Watch Netflix, chill out a bit, and then come back. Still cannot understand? Read again, write down with actual words what you think you understand and what you need help with and go to forums and ask for help. But, the thing you should be doing is not asking for the best course to watch or some other resource where you expect knowledge to be spoon-fed to you.
A Small Real Experience:
I had the pleasure to work with a Junior Developer a few years ago. He was around 60. Turns out he was a programmer in the early 70/80’s. How did he become one, you ask? All the dude had was one book and a crap computer without internet. He told me that he read the book like 20 times before it clicked; it took him like 3-4 months. There was no internet back then, nobody to ask.
He said, once it clicked, everything fell into place, and he started building games. Later, he joined a software company, and afterward, he made his own company which he ran for about 30 years and sold.
You may ask why he wanted to continue development, and I also asked him that. The guy was loaded with money; I could tell it wasn’t for the money. He said solving problems is what he wants to do; for him, it’s a quest for knowledge.
What is the moral of the story?
The moral of the story is that the initiative starts with you, and you shouldn’t rely on anything else. If you do not commit to understanding what you are trying to do, you will be forever stuck in watching videos and asking for help and what tech stack is best. This is it, that is the only thing you need.
You need to trust yourself and give yourself the time to understand a given technology. It would help if you worked hard until it clicked. Once this happens, everything afterward is like a waterfall.
The only tips you need to become a developer!