Don't read only, do it - chmod 700 you

Hello, its friday, its blog day. We are going to talk about the importance of practice in software engineering. Its not a long one but I hope you get the point. The benefits of practice are immense. It is the difference between "I can do it" and "I have done it".

Its friday, its blog day.

meh...I speak to junior devs today ​

I was helping my sister with some maths questions some days back. She is in high school, and while I don't remember most of the math, I noticed something. Each time we went to the next question that she got wrong, I would start explaining and she would say, "oh I know that! ". So what really happens? When I was in high school, I would say the same thing. "Oh I know that". Then how did I get it wrong? Most of the time, the lack of practice in what theorize

Cliche ​

This has been said a lot of times, I mean to repeat it. "Practice makes perfect". Obviously, it won't make it perfect but it will make a considerable jump in how you approach and process theory. Its not "I can do it!", its "I have done it". Trying makes you see the process. Have you ever been wowed by a thing that you've used many times. Most of the time we don't give it much thought, unless its a domain we are familiar with. This also happens when we practice some things. When we actually do it, we are wowed. This will usually happen in unexpected ways. When you practice doing something, you meet edge cases that will surely frustrate you. But you will be wowed surely.

"I can't build that in a weekend" ​

So what does practicing help a software engineer do? Well the gain is in the struggle. "Why doesn't it work?" The most common question in software engineering and the best question you can get. Now you have a rabbit hole to enter and uncover. Learn the behaviours of why it doesn't work. Debug, get frustrated, give in and finally understand how it works. The joy makes the moment and the learning sticks. You get to know what it takes to build the feature? Now you understand why a product is , "its not a wrapper for...".This is the point you start seeing value in the mildest of things. You see a simple feature and you can appreciate the thought in it.Practice teaches you this. It teaches you to value the work of others.

the devil is in the nuance ​

The subtle dfferences are the kryptonite that you get. Remember tho, you are batman. Investigate. They can't hurt you. Once you get hands on, you start seeing the differences in different framworks and languanges. This will make you make a choice on what tool works best for a situation. And now you can stop, "I have nothing on my end..." to "I think this would be...". This is because once you beat the edge cases, you uncover some truths about what works and what doesn't. Obviously, tools have a niche. Without practicing, you will never know. Be proactive. Don't just read, do it.

"Kwa ground vitu ni different" is a common phrase in kenya. Just means that saying something especially on twitter doesn't make them true unless you hear them from the people who are actually there. Its the same thing with programming, don't just say it, show it.

Btw(by the way), I write blogs in a funny way I think, but I like it, unless its unintended, yeah I wrote something the way you read it. I think its cool and fun