As a programmer, you have to consider how to keep improving yourself. Everybody starts somewhere, you might be a newcomer to programming, or perhaps you have to guide a newcomer. This article will help you develop your growth as a programmer, or help you guide in helping others do the same.

Take time to read and understand the code

Newcomers should browse and read code written by veteran programmers. It may seem like a waste of time. However, you can get used to code patterns that might be useful for you.

Also, it is important to understand the fact that “it takes time to understand the code”. It is possible that you read a lot of code but don’t really understand it. Or, you might understand only a part of it.

By doing pair programming you can understand that “the veteran engineer is not a superhuman”.

Always use wisdom to simplify the problem in front of you

You might be only trying to look at the code you wrote again, or trying to read through your errors. Consider rethinking your code. In other words, consider the performance, and try to locate the part that is giving you the error. Try to find the cause.

The way to identify the cause of the error may be “natural” for the veteran engineer, but newcomers need to learn to develop this skill from scratch. Pair programming and observing veteran coders isolate errors can help too.

Improve your workflow and use automation tools

If you’re a veteran engineer, you’ll see a big difference from a newcomer that writes code with customized tools and a newcomer that has not yet started to do so. Customizing your tools makes them easy to use, and it can make up for a big difference in speed and quality. In fact, The speed is completely different just by using the editor functions and shortcut keys.

There are several other principles that may help you, but developing good basic habits will form a good core. Activities like pair programming can help you as a newcomer to programming to improve yourself faster.