This is another post in the spirit of the STEMGeek's Hackathon.
The prize pool for the Hackathon is over 12,000 Hive right now.
There is one tip that is so good it will jumpstart your programming ability more than anything else.
It is completely language agnostic.
It will never be outdated.
Got any idea what it is?
It's simple, stop doing tutorials!
I haven't polled every developer, but I have a good suspicion this affects a large number of them.
When you start developing, you follow tutorials. These tutorials can be very helpful but they can also be an anchor and hold you back. You need a balance, enough tutorials so you understand what needs to be done (you don't need to memorize it) but you can't spend all your time doing tutorials.
You want to start your own project, build something. It could be something that uses the ideas in the tutorials you have been following, or a project you want to complete that may or may be over your head right now.
By doing an actual project, you will learn far more than any tutorial will teach you, you be forced to think for yourself, solve problems, look up documentation and examples.
Tutorials are not bad, but they can easily eat up all your time and prevent your own personal development.
If you are participating in the STEMGeeks Hackathon, time is even more important as you only have 8 days to finish your project and submit it.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
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