I came across an enlightening article as I was doing some research for the ‘Level Up Code’ site. I want to recommend it to everyone who wants to improve any skills, break a habit or adopt a new habit:

“Discomfort Zone: How to Master the Universe” by Leo Babauta

All people tend to make themselves comfortable and to avoid discomfort. But getting better in something, or changing ourselves to become the way we want to be – it comes only through some short-term or middle-term discomfort in the beginning. This is what prevents many people from mastering their skills and releasing their real potential – avoiding the discomfort of learning and trying and especially the great discomfort of realizing that their current skills require improvement.

Anyone who wants to become better at anything must learn one essential thing – how to be comfortable with discomfort. Welcome discomfort because it is the only way which leads to improvement. One can only become a better software developer through the continuous learning, practicing, accepting criticism and self-criticism.

Check out a blog entry by Robert C. Martin:
“Flipping the Bit” and find out whether you flipped the bit!

Flipping the bit here means changing the attitude to software development. This is what this website of mine is about. It’s not a quick process, it may take some months. I think that the most important thing is to GIVE IT A TRY. Just give peace a chance. Try for a month or two or mabye three to strictly follow the Clean Code principles. Or learn and apply SOLID principles, dependency injection, TDD – the choice is yours! I think, that it is essential to start and to try to do things differently, supported by someone who already is experienced in this area. Only then a person can develop a feeling for writing code differently. Only then a person gains at least some experience and can compare this new experience to the old way of writing code, being unaware of code cleanliness and best practices of object-orientation. Without learning and giving it a try you’re going nowhere.