[lebimas]

Real question, how did you learn how to code this well? I found your LinkedIn from your Github, and as someone who is just committing to becoming a SWE at 26, having learned a bit of Python and Matlab in college, and a bit of Java in high school, yet never fully grasped it and thus avoided it for as long as possible, I'm impressed by people who have this caliber of abilities at such a young age. Are there any tips or bits of advice you (or anyone else on HN for that matter) would give to someone who really wants to be the best they can possibly be at coding?

[ashtonjamesd]

Hi, I have been coding on GitHub for about 2 years. There's no trick other than enjoying it and relentlessly programming for fun. You probably know this, but if you enjoy something, you'll likely be better at it than someone who doesn't! More concrete advice would be to become an expert on the fundamentals and then try to tackle large projects, things that you think you could definitely not do, but do them anyway.

[lebimas]

I appreciate the response! Was there any structured curriculum you used for learning the fundamentals? As someone who isn’t in a CS program, I was wondering where a good place to start would be

[ashtonjamesd]

No problem! With C, I started with the K&R book. This provided a great foundation for C and some fundamental CS concepts. I am unsure of the best way to obtain a more structured curriculum outside of college, as that is how I received mine. There are many YouTube video courses to choose from if that is the type of content you learn best from. And many for CS fundamentals. I would also highly recommend a combination of project-based learning with theory, as that will accelerate your understanding quite a bit. You could try looking for a programming buddy on Reddit on r/programming, too! Having someone at a similar skill level to you will make learning easier as you both share knowledge.