Mistakes programmers need to look out for

• Programming is more about practicising than passive knowledge gain.
• Understand the solutions solved/suggest by your peers, introspect on why he could solve it better and why you couldn't.
• Be a perpetual learner.
• Don't just reuse, reuse and add value.
• Re-affirm and reconfirm your learning.

I was going through my Firefox bookmarks and I found article. I had read this article two years back and had commented that I found it to be useful. I read it back in May 2018. As of now, November 2020, my programming skills are still novice-level. I haven't implemented the ideas or followed suggestions given here.

It has been 2 years and 5 months since I found this article to be relevant and it baffles me that I haven't taken action by making use of the knowledge given in this article. Two long years flew by. I guess reviewing my bookmarks is something that I will do more often.

The article was posted on May 23, 2018 and I had stumbled on it the next day itself, i.e., May 24, 2018. This gets me thinking that we could finds solutions for problems(latest ones in this case) once we identify it, articulate it, hit the search button and just read stuff. I could presume that what happened next was that I misunderstood "finding a solution" to "realizing the solution", and perhaps became complacent or maybe there were more problems that didn't come to my awareness to identify and further find solutions. I'm not quite sure. Should I have identified my problems and googled more so that I could have learned C and C++ sooner?

I wonder what held me back from taking action to accomplish and master something that usually takes not more that 5-6 months maximum.

On learning programming

• Master one first programming language first, before moving to the next.
• Learn at a slow for the first two programming languages. This is important for beginners
• Practising coding is more important than watching tutorials or reading books. You learn more by practising than by reading or watching videos.
• Apart from tutorials, immitating open source projects is very important
• Read others code and immitate it. You'll be surprised at how fast you're learning.
• Make use of StackOverflow, Quora and programming subreddits.Ask questions there. Interact more.
• Practice more. Write code from time to time. Debugging skills imporove with more coding practice.
• Test your skills with quizzes, challenges and competitive programming

Practice programming challenges with HackerEarth and then move to TopCoder.

Project Euler emphasises on programming challenges that involve problem solving and critical thinking skills.

You'll learn more when you read others' code and immitate it. CodeChef provides you access to learn from others' code.