How to Learn Something New Every Day as a Software Developer

As a software developer, one of the most important skills you can cultivate is the ability to learn quickly and continuously. In an industry where tools, frameworks, and best practices are always evolving, committing to lifelong learning is essential for long-term success and growth.

Consider these statistics:

• The 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that 75% of respondents learn a new technology at least every few months or once a year, and 25% learn a new technology every few weeks or once a month.
• LinkedIn Learning‘s 2020 Workplace Learning Report found that the #1 reason employees feel held back from learning is because they don‘t have enough time.
• A study published in the Psychological Science journal found that adopting a growth mindset leads to greater motivation, better grades, and higher achievement test scores for students.

But with so many resources available and new technologies emerging all the time, it can be overwhelming to know where to focus your learning efforts. How can you make sure you‘re learning the right things and making steady progress?

Develop a Learning Mindset

The first step to continuous learning is to approach it with the right mindset. Rather than viewing learning as a chore or something you do in your spare time, try to see it as an essential part of your job and identity as a developer.

One way to cultivate a learning mindset is to set aside dedicated time for learning each day, even if it‘s just 30 minutes. Block off this time on your calendar and treat it as non-negotiable, just like any other meeting or commitment.

During your learning time, focus on being present and engaged. Approach new concepts with curiosity and an open mind, and don‘t be afraid to ask questions or admit when you don‘t understand something. The more actively you participate in your learning, the more you‘ll get out of it.

Another key aspect of the learning mindset is adopting a growth mindset – a term coined by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Dweck‘s research has shown that individuals who believe their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others tend to achieve more than those with a fixed mindset, or the belief that talents are innate gifts.

Neuroscience also supports the idea that our brains are highly plastic and can change throughout our lives. A 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience used MRIs to show that learning induced structural changes in the brain‘s gray matter and white matter pathways – in other words, learning actually changes the physical structure of your brain.

So embrace the discomfort that comes with learning something new – that feeling is your brain growing! With persistence and the right strategies, you can learn anything you set your mind to.

Leverage Online Resources and Communities

One of the best things about being a developer today is the wealth of online resources available for learning new skills. From online courses and tutorials to blogs and podcasts, there‘s no shortage of high-quality content to help you learn and grow.

Some of my favorite resources include:

• Codecademy: Interactive courses on web development, programming, and data science. I found their Web Development career path particularly helpful when I was first starting out.

• freeCodeCamp: A nonprofit community that provides a free curriculum covering everything from HTML and CSS to machine learning. Their coding challenges and projects are great for hands-on practice.

• Frontend Masters: In-depth video courses on frontend technologies from industry experts. Their courses on React, Redux, and TypeScript helped me level up my skills.

• Egghead.io: Concise video tutorials on web development topics. I often turn to their courses to quickly learn a new library or tool.

• Syntax FM: A podcast for web developers hosted by Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski, covering topics like JavaScript, CSS, tooling, and career development.

When evaluating a new learning resource, I look for:

• Clarity of explanations
• Hands-on exercises or projects
• Relevance to my learning goals
• Engagement and pacing
• Reputation of the instructors or institution

In addition to formal learning resources, engaging with developer communities is a great way to gain knowledge through osmosis, get answers to your questions, and learn from others‘ experiences. Some of the most active and supportive communities include:

• Stack Overflow: A Q&A site for developers to get help with coding problems. I‘ve found many solutions to tricky bugs here.

• DEV Community: A platform for developers to share articles, tutorials, and discuss programming topics. I always learn something new from the posts here.

• GitHub: A place to discover and contribute to open source projects. Reading through the source code and issues of well-regarded projects has taught me a lot about software architecture and collaboration.

• Twitter: A great place to follow and interact with developers you admire. I‘ve discovered countless useful resources and insights through my Twitter feed.

By curating a diverse set of learning resources and participating in developer communities, you can expose yourself to new ideas and perspectives that will help you grow as a developer.

Learn by Doing with Personal Projects

While consuming educational content is important, the best way to truly learn and retain new skills is through hands-on practice. That‘s where personal projects come in.

Building your own apps, tools, and experiments is a great way to apply what you‘ve learned and gain real-world experience with new technologies. It also allows you to explore your interests, solve problems that matter to you, and build up a portfolio of work to showcase your skills.

Some of the projects I‘ve worked on recently include:

• A web app for tracking and visualizing personal fitness data using React, D3, and the Fitbit API
• A Chrome extension for saving and organizing online articles using Node.js, Express, and MongoDB
• An open source library for generating realistic test data in JavaScript

Not only did these projects help me solidify my understanding of the technologies involved, but they also taught me valuable lessons about project management, debugging, and performance optimization.

If you‘re looking for inspiration for your own projects, here are a few ideas:

• Build a clone of a popular app or website to practice your frontend skills
• Create a REST API backend for a mobile app idea you have
• Contribute to an open source project that aligns with your interests or uses a technology you want to learn
• Solve one of your own workflow problems with a custom tool or script

Be sure to document your process and learnings along the way by writing blog posts or tutorials, creating videos or screencasts, or adding detailed READMEs to your project repositories. Communicating what you‘ve learned will reinforce your own understanding while also demonstrating your growing expertise to others.

Adopt Deliberate Practice Techniques

To accelerate your learning and make the most of your practice time, try applying the principles of deliberate practice – a technique used by top performers to systematically improve their skills through focused, repetitive practice and continuous feedback.

A 2016 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that deliberate practice was a strong predictor of skill level in chess players, and a 2019 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that deliberate practice led to improved performance in a variety of professions.

So what does deliberate practice look like for software developers? Here are a few techniques to try:

• Spaced repetition: Use flashcards or an app like Anki to quiz yourself on syntax, concepts, or keyboard shortcuts at increasing intervals. This leverages the psychological spacing effect to improve retention.

• Code katas: Practice solving common coding challenges or problems in your language of choice. Sites like Codewars and LeetCode offer a wide range of katas to try. Focus on efficiency, readability, and best practices.

• Side projects: Build small apps or tools to get practice with specific skills or technologies. For example, I built a weather app to practice working with APIs and a todo list app to practice state management.

• Code review: Analyze your own code or review code written by others to identify areas for improvement. Look for opportunities to refactor, optimize performance, or adhere to best practices and design patterns.

• Pair programming: Work alongside another developer to solve a problem together. Explain your thought process out loud and listen to your partner‘s approach. You‘ll likely encounter new ways of thinking and learn from each other.

The key is to push yourself out of your comfort zone, stay focused on the task at hand, and reflect on your performance afterwards. Deliberate practice may not always be fun in the moment, but by putting in the reps consistently, you‘ll see compounding improvements in your skills over time.

Stay Current with Industry Trends

As a software developer, it‘s important to keep your finger on the pulse of where the industry is heading so you can make informed decisions about what skills to learn and what kinds of projects to work on.

The 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that the most loved and wanted technologies among developers included Rust, TypeScript, Python, Kotlin, and Go, while the most dreaded included Visual Basic, Objective-C, and Perl.

Gartner‘s 2021 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report highlighted important trends like:

• The decentralized web and blockchain
• AI-augmented software development
• Low-code and no-code platforms
• Privacy-enhancing computation
• Intelligent process automation

While you don‘t need to become an expert in every new technology that comes along, it‘s worth investing time into learning the fundamentals of the ones that are most relevant to your work and interests.

To stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies, I recommend:

• Following thought leaders and influencers in the developer community on social media and through their blogs and newsletters
• Attending conferences and webinars, or watching recordings of talks from past events
• Reading industry reports and surveys from organizations like Stack Overflow, GitHub, and consulting firms
• Participating in hackathons or coding challenges that encourage experimentation with new technologies
• Joining local meetup groups or online communities focused on specific technologies or domains

By staying plugged into the larger conversation happening in the industry, you‘ll be better equipped to make strategic decisions about your learning priorities and career path.

Embrace Lifelong Learning

At the end of the day, the key to learning something new every day as a software developer is to embrace lifelong learning as a core part of your identity and work.

The technology landscape will continue to evolve, and the skills that are relevant today may be obsolete in a few years. But if you can cultivate a mindset of curiosity, a willingness to experiment and make mistakes, and a commitment to continuous improvement, you‘ll be well-positioned to adapt and thrive in the face of change.

So set aside time for learning, surround yourself with resources and mentors, tackle challenging projects, reflect on your progress, and stay engaged with the industry. With dedication and persistence, you can achieve mastery in your craft and build a successful, fulfilling career as a software developer.