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Ask HN: How do I become the very best?
4 points by RandomCharArray 5124 days ago
The Pokemon theme song goes:

> I wanna be the very best

> Like no one ever was

While I don't want to be the _very best_, I'd like to be pretty damn good.

I'm studying for my Integrated Master's degree in Software Engineering right now, 3rd year out of 5. Fortunately, there's no shortage of jobs where I am located (the EU). Academically, I'm doing well, too: I was a TA, have good grades and maintain very good relationships with my professors.

I love software development. It's the first thing I've been really good at. I think I'm a smart guy, too.

I have, however, very little to show for it, apart from Uni projects and good grades. All of my personal projects simple stuff that grows stale after I frantically hack on it for a couple of days.

Now, I'm trying to make amends: - I got a spot at a summer school/internship at a very prestigious research institute.

- I'm going to create a technical blog where I can at least talk about my quick hacks and record my thoughts on trends.

- I've been trying to always have something going apart from working towards my degree: this summer, I'll be teaching a summer course.

- I've been trying to get international experience. The internship is abroad. I'm also going to be studying at Germany for the next semester at a pretty good university.

I'd like to take advantage of HN's userbase to ask for help:

Do you have any recommendations for me?

How can I groom myself for the top companies?

How can I become the very best?

Thanks in advance.

(note: throwaway account)

3 comments

Consider answering questions on stackoverflow. I have nowhere near the schooling you do, and basically spend 30 minutes a day clicking through questions and just reading them - even though I can't answer, I'm finding it to be a valuable experience.
Hey, thanks for replying.

I have a stackoverflow profile, and I do try to reply to questions, but my ratio of questions asked to questions answered is 6:1.

That's because for me, as an intermediate programmer, most questions fall on one of these two categories:

- Incredibly easy: Anyone can answer these.

- Incredibly hard: Really above my skill level.

More or less where I'm at, as well, so I don't have too much more advice :(. I've read all the books and done all the tutorials, so I'm strong on the easy, fundamental stuff but now I'm really not sure how to progress all that much further.
You need to sacrifice to be the best. You will never be the best at $x if there's someone who is willing to give up more and focus harder than you.
What problem do you want to solve in the world - big or small?
You are always here, where is your contact info?
Short answer: Big. Definitely.
Yeah just think about the problems and then find ways to solve them with what you know. Teach yourself what you don't know.