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This article is the second part of the Science of Expertise series. Before reading along, read The Science of Expertise: introduction to Perceptual Learning. the resources mentioned in this series is also found at the end. A Better Way to Practice Ruby: Deliberate Practice Perceptual Learning results are promising. Unfortunately, no research has been made for programming yet. In this article, you’ll learn what we apply from what’s been published regarding Perceptual Learning in several domains....

How do you become an expert? Why some Ruby developers can’t explain what they know? Why some developers don’t develop expert skills? What does it mean to be a Ruby expert? To discuss these questions, we’ll explore Perceptual Learning (PL) research. PL is a natural learning process that complements traditional Education. It accelerates expertise by speeding pattern recognition, intuition and fluency on a given subject. Ever since I found out about Perceptual Learning in the book “Badass - Making users awesome”, from Kathy Sierra, I got really curious to learn more about the science behind Perceptual Learning....

“Can you help me build out my developer portfolio?” It’s the first question early-career developers ask when they book a mentoring call with me. They’ve been struggling to find their first developer job. They read an article or a friend tells them they should be focusing on building their tech portfolio. Or they just decided to follow generic advice on the internet. I’ve been mentoring people for many years, and the portfolio question is the first thing they ask me....

Does it take forever to ship even small features on the codebase you’re working on? Is the code hard to understand and maintain? Are projects always running over budget? Are you constantly sacrificing code quality and not paying down technical debt? When you change one feature, does another completely unrelated part of your app stop working? New bugs appear, even though tests never break? 🥵 Those are signs that you are suffering from working on a codebase with low code quality....

Are you looking for courses, training, and resources to improve your Ruby and Ruby on Rails skills, but you are not being paid in US dollars? Most Ruby and Ruby on Rails books and courses are priced in US dollars. When you can’t afford them just because the country you live in has an undervalued currency compared to the dollar, it makes it difficult to invest in your education. There are many free options you probably already know about, and you’re already using them....

Are you having a hard time picking up the syntax of a new programming language, even though you know how to code? You’re new to Ruby, and people say it’s an easy language, but you find the syntax difficult to understand. You know a bit of Javascript, Python, Java, or any other language. But Ruby seems like alien technology to you. By the end of this post, you’ll have a tool to help you transfer your knowledge of [INSERT PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE HERE] to Ruby....

You want to write smooth professional-looking code. You’re craving some squeaky-clean code. But all you have for lunch every day is a big bowl of legacy spaghetti code. You consider yourself a decent developer, but you’re never sure how to organize a project. How to name things. Where some piece of business logic should live. How can you become a Ruby on Rails expert if the code you read every day stinks?...

One of my readers asked: How do you get started when you join a new company? How do you add features to a codebase that is massive, scary, and completely new to you? The first day at your new developer job is just like the first day at a new school. 🚸 A sea of stranger’s faces watching your every move. Unfamiliar smells in the hallway. Every chair is uncomfortable and makes weird noises when you sit....

Let’s say you’re learning how to paint. When you look at the famous paintings at the museum, you might start asking yourself: “Will I ever be this good? Is this for me? Will I ever understand all of this?” If these questions sound familiar, it’s because you’re not alone. It’s not just you. Believe it or not, the same questions can be applied to coding. Some things, like painting and learning how to code, are hard....

You show your GitHub project to people but they don’t understand what the code is about. Why should you take time to write a good README if they can simply “read the code”? They won’t even look at your code if you don’t explain what’s in it for them. Why should anyone care about it? What about making them curious about your project? It saves them time, it shows you care about good communication and that by writing good docs you probably write good code as well....

When you get stuck, it’s really easy to block yourself from creatively solving your problem. You start asking “why am I so dumb?”, or thinking that you don’t have a programmer’s brain, or feeling that you’ll never understand anything. How is that helpful? It isn’t. The way we talk to each other (even to ourselves) impacts our performance. It’s not self-help BS. It’s how our brain works. As Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, one of my favorite neuroscientists, shows in this short video, “The Power of Words is in the wiring of your brain”:...

You’re focusing on finding that first Ruby job. You’ve been practicing for months or years. You’ve been applying to entry-level jobs, even internships. You polish your resume. Tweak your portfolio. Attach your CV. Press Submit. Chirp, chirp, chirp 🦗 Nothing happens. Worse: you do an amazing interview, people loved you. But then they say they are moving forward with someone else that has more experience. Welp, next time is going to be different....

Are you looking for an opportunity to get more experience as a Ruby on Rails developer? Make meaningful connections with the community? Learn the best practices on how to maintain a large codebase? What if you could get that experience by contributing to an open source project like Ruby on Rails? If that sounds scary, don’t worry! We can help you! By the end of this post, you’ll learn 5 ways to become a new Rails contributor, even if you are a beginner in Ruby....

You have a technical blog but there is only one problem: no one is reading what you write. Why? Think about it: readers aren’t going through their day waiting for your tech tutorials. They’re busy dealing with whatever is going on in their day, just like you! They are thinking of how they are going finish their work before Friday, how they are going to fix the bug in production… you get the picture....

When you’re banging your head against the wall trying to fix a bug, the last thing you want is having to stop and learn how to use the debugging tool. You might even have added require 'pry' on a Ruby file but quickly realized you couldn’t remember all the available commands. If only there was a way for you to quickly learn how to use Pry and focus on solving the problem… Well, there is now!...

Monica Lent is a software engineer and entrepreneur. She decided to quit her job and bootstrap Affilimate full-time. She also created Blogging for Devs, a paid community to help developers grow their technical blogs with SEO. Apple Podcasts | Spotify Show Notes Monica Lent’s website Affilimate Blogging for Devs Monica’s Income Report Amy Hoy’s post about content marketing Transcript Stefanni Brasil: [00:00:10] Our guest today is Monica Lent. She is a software engineer and maker....

Brian David Hall is an expert in conversion optimization. He’s a software engineer by training, runs his own company, and is the host of the SaaS Experiments Podcast, where he talks to other experts in growth marketing. We talked about the unusual tech jobs he’s had that helped him learn other skills beyond coding. Apple Podcasts | Spotify You can use your skills in other areas like Marketing and Sales to transition to a tech job instead of throwing away your current expertise....

Michael Lynch is a software developer and blogger. He used to work as a software engineer at Google, but he decided to quit and now he’s a solo founder, and blogs about his experience. Michael has recently launched the course Hit The Front Page of Hacker News Course. The course teaches everything he has learned about Hacker News after getting many of his original blog posts to hit the front page....

We had a great time chatting with Preetam Nath and Sankalp Jonna, the co-founders of SuperLemon and DelightChat. They started a micro-SaaS in 2019. After about 14 months, they grew the monthly recurring revenue to $30,000. More than 20,000 merchants are using their product on the Shopify App Store, which is completely insane! DelightChat is a customer support tool for small and medium-sized e-commerces. The great thing about their story is that they’re not just building a business, but building a life on top of that business....