In the first episode of AskDevs twitter spaces, I spoke with self-taught developers on the relevance of coding projects.
Here are my learnings from the session, which will teach you how to improve your web development skills with project-based learning.
Let’s go! 🚀
Escape tutorial hell 🏃
Tutorials are great for solving a specific problem. But you need to create projects to build coding skills.
A real-world project involves a lot of debugging and troubleshooting, which can’t be learned by just following tutorials.
Here, Swapnil who is a top-rated freelance developer suggests
Learning to code is like learning to play football. Once you understand the rules, you improve by practicing. Similarly, you improve your coding skills by building projects.
Remember that tutorials are fine. Tutorial hell isn’t.
Start Early, Start Small 🏁
You don’t need to learn 100% JavaScript to start building projects. Nor do you need to take up Netflix as your first project.
Find a project that you find interesting and are 90% confident that you can build.
According to Pritesh, a dev content creator
Developers should start creating after learning the basics. Like, once you have a working knowledge of HTML and CSS, you can try building 1-page websites and landing pages.
Creating something of value keeps you motivated in your journey.
Up complexity slowly 📈
If projects are too easy, you will lose interest. If they are too hard, you will give up. In between, there is a sweet spot.
Whichever project you choose, make sure at least some parts of it are challenging for you.
Aarya, a student web developer adds here
It’s important to keep leveling up the complexity of projects. Once you are comfortable implementing simple UI components, think of how you can use them to implement more complicated components.
You build your skill by doing difficult things.
Collaborate 🤝
Developers working alone is an outdated stereotype.
You can build with peer developers by
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Pair programming
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Participating in hackathons
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Contributing to open source
Rakesh a frontend developer and an open source advocate advises
Different developers excel in different areas. With collaboration, not only do you build higher-quality projects, but also learn from other developers.
Collaboration improves both your coding as well as communication skills.
Showcase your work 🎨
Once you have amazing projects, it’s time to share your work with people.
Simple ways to do that are by creating a portfolio website or hosting projects on GitHub.
Shubhangi a frontend dev recommends
While working on projects, blogging or tweeting about it helps a lot. It’s a great way to document your journey and showcase your skills.
Learning in public keeps you accountable and can land you job opportunities.
Wrapping up 📝
Knowing how to code is not enough. You need to create something that solves real-world problems.
If you liked the discussion, follow me on Twitter to not miss my next twitter space.
Teach other devs early what you learned late by volunteering with AskDevs.
