When I first started developing software, I was often lured in by flashy marketing claims of tools or programming languages. “You can display ‚Hello World!‘ in 5 minutes!” claims on the front pages of tools or programming languages. While the claim is often true, it isn’t honest. Yes, it took only a couple of minutes, but I just copied example commands without understanding what I am doing. I had to trust the default settings. I had to accept the shortcomings of the tool I picked. What about security? And of course, I could not sell ‚Hello World!’ to a client. I would have wished for honest courses teaching me what I really need.
I would have been grateful for a mentor taking me under his wing. Someone explaining to me the “Why” behind some best practices. A guru that offers advice on how things are done “in the real world” as opposed to the examples in books and online tutorials.
Today, I sometimes know what I’m doing. I almost always know where to look it up. Most importantly: I’m aware of the knowledge gaps that I still have. I know how to apply my knowledge to different contexts, which criteria to use to make a technical decision and I’ve seen dozens of ways to achieve the same goal, so I can recommend a fitting one whenever asked. Getting to the point where I am today was hard.
To provide a solution for aspiring Software Developers, I’m happy to announce that I partnered with Artjom Simon (known as Co-Founder of Sompani) and Deniz Kalayci (known as frontend guru). Together we offer “Honest Courses”, a new workshop format. In our courses, we’ll show new, struggling, growing Software Developers important tricks of the trade you won’t find in the usual beginner’s guides. We’ll develop real (tiny) software project from idea to delivery, focusing on different aspects of Software Development. We are still in the early planning stages, stay tuned for more information in the next couple of months.
Image: mohamed Hassan auf Pixabay