[Jemaclus]

I think a lot of this is mental -- identifying problems and solving them -- and then after that, practice practice practice.

There's a quote I've heard from many people that goes something like this: "Make it work; make it work well; then make it work fast."

Wherever you go, look for problems to solve. Code takes 30 minutes to compile? Find a way to speed it up. API takes 3 seconds to return a response? Find a way to speed it up. Database migrations require downtime? Find a way to avoid that.

Another option is to find better ways to do things that you already know how to do. Know how to query an API and retrieve a list of users? Improve it by re-using connections or caching responses for short periods of time. Know how to build a REST API? Now figure out how to scale it to 1000 requests per second. Know how to render a scene using ray-tracing? Optimize it to 60fps.

I think the key here is relentless curiosity. You're asking the right questions, so you're on the right track! Just keep at it. Never settle for "fine." Ask yourself how to make it better. And over time, you'll get "better" on the first try.

Once you have that mindset down, it's just practice, practice, practice. Write as much code as you can. Find tools that resonate with you. Find design patterns that accelerate your growth and reduce mistakes. Incremental progress is still progress!