

Ask HN: What articles, essays, blogs you have helped you master coding the most? - rblion

I&#x27;m just open to absorbing as much as possible from the experience and wisdom of others on the same path as myself. There is so much good stuff out there, I&#x27;m sure I&#x27;ve only discovered a fraction of it on my own.<p>Thanks for taking the time and contributing. :)
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brickcap
I liked reading Joe Armstrong's thesis[1] on erlang where he describes what it
takes to build fault tolerant systems. Though he talks about erlang some of
the concepts stuck with me and helped me in writing code in other languages.

For example one of the recurring themes is the concept of "intentional
programming" that I found myself using in my code more often and it resulted
in drastic simplification of ideas.

His other ideas like supervision are pretty much tied to erlang unless you
want to dedicate effort in "porting" them to your preferred language.

The book is small (<300 pages) and quite readable even if you don't know any
erlang.

I also liked reading about programming habits from @edw519[2]. Especially the
part about reading code and analyzing it everyday. Following his way I can
pretty much reproduce the entire codebase that I am currently working on from
my memory right down to the unit tests.

Why is it helpful? Because if you have the entire thing in your head then your
brain keeps working on the problem even if you are not. Faults in design and
implementation are easier to catch. This practice of self critique is the
second best thing to code review and the best if you can't get your code
reviewed. It can also lead to "analysis paralysis" if you are not disciplined
:)

[1][http://ftp.nsysu.edu.tw/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/erlang/armst...](http://ftp.nsysu.edu.tw/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/erlang/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf)

[2][http://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.pdf](http://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.pdf)

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coreyp_1
Quite honestly, the thing that has helped the most is actually doing it. In
order to get good at programming, you have to program a lot, constantly
challenging yourself. Build something big, then take a step back, see where it
needs improvement, then re-code it with the improvements. That's the best way
to learn.

~~~
rblion
I agree, nothing replaces practice. Yet, I also like to learn about from the
experience of product designers and developers. It's something to read as I
start my day with a coffee.

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kennycox
I amn't sure, but you should follow
[http://www.codeproject.com/](http://www.codeproject.com/) to find coding
related solutions.

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brudgers
_I Assume I am Below Average_ :

[https://sivers.org/below-average](https://sivers.org/below-average)

