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Comment by deadfall | Hacker News Reader

How many years?

I believe Yehuda only started coding in 2006? Maybe 2008?

I did my first real coding in around 2005, and quickly got interested in both jQuery and Rails. Really good timing in retrospect!

Considering you've been coding less than a decade, can you comment on what you think the biggest factor was that lead you to developing such a high level of mastery of solid coding principles? Books, mentoring, reading framework and library code thoroughly?

Wow, you've asked just the question i've been wondering ever since I read that date. Very curious, because it seems like there's been a reliably intuitive focus since the very beginning which generally takes years to develop.

I think the best I can do here is my usual answer: take some time every week to work on a problem that is a little bit harder than what you already know how to do. It requires discipline, and it's hard, but it reliably results in levelling up.

It also helps with humility: if you're constantly working on things that are too hard for you to do, it's hard to build up an unhealthy belief in your own abilities. And humility will keep you open to unexpected learnings from collaborators and people working on related things.

I think this can be great advice, but is dependent on your level of humility; it can also a recipe for a serious case of imposter syndrome

What do you recommend someone do / read / learn if he wants to follow on your path?

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