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Comment by zabzonk | Hacker News Reader

Get computer. Play with it a bit. Get book on programming in X. Write code.

Books, and reading them and doing, are the only way of learning how to be a software developer.

That's true of a software developer in the narrow sense. In the broader sense there are skills around collaborating with others, working sync/async, delivering with quality, communicating status, mentoring junior people, educating others about what is going on, and maintaining the systems over time.

Well, of course. But primarily, you have to be able to write code. And to do that, reading books is the primary resource (and for a lot of the other things you mention).

There is a hands-on book about the OP's approach to programming (How to design programs). It distills some excellent ideas I had to learn over years.

It does feel long and dull to me now -- I haven't seen a book condensing the same for a non-beginner looking to improve.

why specifically books? i never was able to get real value out of them in the case of programming.

It's the way I roll, I guess. Everything technical with regards to computing I have learned in life I've done so from books/manuals. It is kind of all of human history to do so. And are you suggesting that you can't get anything of value out of (for e.g.) "The C Programming Language"?

what do you mean by "write code"

I mainly write code by opening my notebook and drawing boxes with little arrows between them.

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