Introduction

Software development/engineering is like any other career, to succeed in it, you have to put in the work.

Below, I share a few notes I use for myself to get better.

1. Be ready to sacrifice everything.

Nothing great ever came easy. Software development is like any other field in engineering, science, or sports.

When you look at prominent names in those areas, you read about the sacrifices they made to be where they are, you know they devoted a lot of time and made a lot of sacrifices to get there.

It's not different for you who have chosen the software development field, you have to devote a lot and lots of time to learning, improving, and relearning, otherwise, you can't be outstanding in anything.

I leave you with a quote by James Allen

“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” ~ James Allen

2. Don't be afraid, focus on your own work, and don't care about the success of others.

By caring about other people's success, you are wasting time, and your anxiety grows by the day. They too put in a lot of work to get to where they are.

There is a reason you never heard of them before they became successful, they were working hard, they were alone, and they worked in silence.

You too have to put in the work. Don't be afraid of missing out, nothing really is going on if you really think about it. So focus on your work.

As famously said by Eric Philips

Learning how to rein in your thoughts and focus is going to help you to achieve your goals in life. Without focus, you can never achieve anything. ~ Eric Phillips

3. Loyalty to the same tradition - Stay updated, but don't jump around.

There are lots of distractions everywhere, most notably in the software field, with new tech being invented every day, and new languages and frameworks, It's easy to feel the urge to jump into every new thing that comes around, especially with the hype that comes with it.

I tell you now, stick to a single area, stay updated, and read about them, but don't rush to learn the new trending framework.

Be loyal to your software stack. Why? you can only be really good at something when you've spent an immense amount of time with it.

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground. ~ Author Unknown

4. Be original - First, copy from others, then make (it) your own.

If you like something, copy it. As famously said,

Hackers, likewise, can learn to program by looking at good programs-- not just at what they do, But at the source code. ~ Paul Graham. Hackers and Painters

You may look at a piece of software and think it's easy to make and think you could rebuild it easily. After copying it, and seeing the effort you had to put in, you'd appreciate your work more. Understand your pain points, and learn to be familiar with them. You will understand different aspects of the work, and have an opinion of how you would do it. Then you would become original.

It's perfectly ok to make things based on other things. as famously said again

The way to create something beautiful is often to make subtle tweaks to something that already exists or to combine existing ideas in a slightly new way. ~ Paul Graham. Hackers and Painters, The essay

Conclusion

It'll be a hard and lonely road. But you are fine. Don't be anxious. Go for it.