The Single Most Important Thing You Can Learn As a Software Engineer
Learn how to learn
The web is filled with self-help articles showcasing titles like “How to become a senior software engineer” or “Top 10 technologies you must know in 2020”. There are literally thousands of them.
While many of these articles contain helpful advice, I believe all of them can be distilled into a single lesson:
The single most important thing you can learn as a software engineer is to learn how to learn.
Meta-Skills
Learning how to learn is a meta-skill, which means it’s an ability that will enable you to grow in more than just one area. To name a few examples:
Learning React is a skill. Learning how to quickly pick up new UI frameworks and libraries is a meta-skill.
Learning to communicate effectively with your manager and peers is a skill. Learning how to best develop your emotional intelligence is a meta-skill.
Learning How to Learn
So, how do you learn best? Yes, you.
Do you learn from reading articles online? Do you go old-school and read physical copies of actual programming textbooks? Maybe you even spend hours scouring pages of documentation from W3C or MDN.
Do you watch videos online? Maybe you have a favorite YouTube channel or an account on a learning platform like Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning, or Egghead.
Do you learn by doing? Do you enjoy building pet projects just to try out a new language, library, or framework? Do you practice with coding exercises on a platform like HackerRank or Codewars?
Do you learn from in-person presentations? Do you attend local meetups and conferences? Does your company have lunch-and-learn presentations where you can learn from your co-workers?