Reddit mentions of Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman

Let r/learnprogramming and r/programming be your mentor!

Check out: http://programmingpraxis.com/ and http://codingkata.org/ for exercises to test out your programming.

Also, when I feel like "sharpening the saw", i sometimes go onto freelance websites and create a "breakable toy" based on someone's actual project.

These phrases are from the book: http://amzn.com/0596518382

Which I also recommend.

• Code by Charles Petzold
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
  
• The Self-Taught Programmer by Cory Althoff
  
• Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving by V. Anton Spraul
  
• Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest and Cliffford Stein
  
• Apprenticeship Patterns by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
  
• Your Code as a Crime Scene by Adam Tornhill
  
  A few that are only relevant to specific languages or niches:
  
  
• Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design by Richard Bird
  
• Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! by Miran Lipovača
  
• JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
  
• The You Don't Know JS series by Kyle Simpson, especially volumes 4 (Types & Grammar) and 5 (Async & Performance).
  
• Identity and Data Security for Web Development by Jonathan LeBlanc and Tim Messerschmidt

I've read Pragmatic Programmer. I'd recommend it too. I almost put it on the list, but I've read so many books that I'd recommend that the list would not be consumable. If you liked Pragmatic Programmer, I recommend that you also read Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the aspiring software craftsmen

First of all: big hug to you.

I know this feeling so well. Remember that this is normal, and that you're not the only one. It's not like the rest of us feel on top of the world 24/7 and that we know it all.

Second of all: Codewars kind of sucks. I love the idea and I've used it a lot, but if you're only half as good at Python as some of those people are at writing the instructions, you're good to go. Jokes aside, I think it's good for practicing algorithms and "weird" parts of the language (like list comprehension), but it's not the most efficient way to actually get better at real life problems. Being good at programming also includes breaking down large tasks into smaller ones, knowing which library to use, knowing how to structure your program, etc. You don't get that from Codewars. This is just my opinion.

When I was in that rut what helped me was reading Apprenticeship Patterns (O'Reilly), which gave me some good tips on how to keep going. Other things that helped:

• Write down what kind of skills you want. Do you want to visualise data? Do you want to make games? Do you actually just want to know every algorithm by heart and be "that person"?
  
• Create a roadmap for obtaining these skills. How do you get there? Which libraries do you need to know? What do you already know?
  
• Expose your ignorance. This is never fun, but very important. What do you suck at? Write a small list of five things you just "didn't quite get" but you see pop up everywhere.
  
• Write a list of five things you'd like to learn. Then sit down and study them + your previous list until you understand. Check them off your list and add new ones. That way you'll also see how far you've come and all the things you know now but didn't know yesterday.
  
• Code. Create projects and build them and fail them and try again. This is the best way to learn. Here's a little list of projects you can try.
  
  Again, what you're feeling is very common. Learning programming is hard, and doing it alone without a community is even harder. Thumbs up to you for reaching out here. Hope you'll feel better and more confident soon!

I really enjoy the book Apprenticeship Patterns. It’s got a lot of great advice about this subject. Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596518382

I'm an instructor at Dev Bootcamp. I regularly teach people to be Web application developers who are in their 30s and 40s. If you want to ramp up into a career in Web development, or software engineering generally, you're looking at 2 to 4 years of intense study. This will get you from dabbler to apprentice to a journeyman status, where you are getting paid well to build things and keep learning.

Did you plan to retire at 24? If not, you are FINE.

Here's a book you might find useful:
http://www.amazon.com/Apprenticeship-Patterns-Guidance-Aspiring-Craftsman/dp/0596518382

http://developer.7digital.com/blog/technical-academy-tour the programme we ran was 3 months and designed to get you onboard as a full-time developer. It was tough but we supported the graduates throughout the process. At lot will depend on your employer. Try and get someone to be your mentor whilst you're there. Also read http://www.amazon.com/Apprenticeship-Patterns-Guidance-Aspiring-Craftsman/dp/0596518382 before you start