This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Eluda
From courses to tutorials and blogs, we all know that the Internet can be an endless trove of information.
It’s the perfect place to learn new things on our own, especially when it concerns the skill of programming.
But with too much greatness comes a serious disadvantage: where can we find the best resources?
I have been in this industry for a very long time, so here’s my golden list of commodities that I couldn’t survive even a day without.
Connecting with a community of developers
Learning web development without classmates makes us prone to loneliness. And this goes without emphasizing the importance of team-work to share knowledge and to help each other in these hard times.
When we’re around people, we gain the privilege of bouncing ideas off each other. Anybody who went to bootcamp or college can back me up on this one.
But for those of us who study exclusively on the `net, the best alternative is joining online communities to learn from and inform other people.
The truth about large online communities
It’s no surprise that joining large groups can be a hassle; it’s not easy to find your place, and it might not even be worth your time.
My personal recommendation for you is to find a small organization of people and:
- Introduce yourself
- Help existing members
- Regularly check-in to see what’s new
But I know that it’s not trivial to discover small communities; that’s why I want to give you the opportunity to join a small and growing organization called the Open Source Hub.
Following a professional roadmap
The world of development is confusing; it seems like everyday, there’s a new framework or library being added to your job description.
Roadmaps were invented to solve this issue: with a clear roadmap, the student can develop an optimal skill-set that your boss can’t turn their head away from.
Every aspect is carefully taken into account:
- Is it future-proof?
- Is it demanded in today’s job market?
- Can I learn it in a realistic time-span?
When I just started programming, there wasn’t a good roadmap for me to follow. I’d probably have finished my studies much faster if I had this great treasure.
Keeping up with Tech Twitter
You probably didn’t expect this one. But contrary to popular belief, Twitter is a great place to learn new information and to connect with other junior programmers, just like you.
After you create a new account, the next step is telling Twitter that your interests lie in programming:
- Follow like-minded users
- Engage with interesting tweets
- Ask questions of your own
I also suggest timing your Twitter feed to show the latest tweets instead:
For those of you interested in web development, I suggest following this list of accounts:
This will keep your Twitter timeline always fresh and full of new and exciting content.
Printing the most important cheat-sheets
There’s a gigantic amount of information that every student needs to learn by heart. But sometimes, it’s just more effective to condense all of that data into a small sheet of paper.
I just described to you what’s known as a “cheat-sheet”, and while those were typically used for cheating on exams as their name suggests, they’re also important candidates for storing and retrieving repeatable topics.
Generous developers have compiled an invaluable list of technical cheat-sheets for topics ranging from CSS to PHP and SQL.
Reading one article a day to stay informed
There’s no better way to start your day than with an interesting article. Do this every day for 12 months, and you’ll be much more informed than your peers.
There’s an endless trove of websites that offer daily articles related to programming, so much that it has become extremely confusing to decide on only one platform.
I personally solved this issue when I started using daily.dev, a hub for the best development articles collected from the best networks.
Conclusion
I start my day off by picking an article to read from daily.dev, scrolling through my Tech Twitter feed, just to finally become productive again and begin programming while referring to my roadmap and my cheat-sheets.
When I get stuck, I simply refer to my community and connect with other developers to resolve any issue I have.
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This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Eluda
Eluda | Sciencx (2022-07-18T20:10:08+00:00) 😲 My Top 5 List of Resources that I Wish I Knew When I Started Programming. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/07/18/%f0%9f%98%b2-my-top-5-list-of-resources-that-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-programming/
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