Programming Achievements: How to Level Up as a Developer

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Programming Achievements: How to Level Up as a Developer

1. Select a particular experience to pursue.
2. Pursue that experience to completion. (Achievement unlocked!)
3. Reflect on that experience. Really soak it in. Maybe a blog post would be in order?
4. Return to Step 1, this time selecting a new experience.

This gist is a fork of the gist from this blog post.

programming-achievements.md

Current in bold. Completed in strikethrough.

Learn a variety of commonly-used programming languages:

• Write a program in Ruby
• Write a program in Python
• Write a program in C
• Write a program in C++
• Write a program in Java
• Write a program in Groovy
• Write a program in Objective-C
• Write a program in C#
• Write a program in PHP 5
• Write a program in Perl
• Write a program in Javascript
• Write a program in Shell Script

Learn a variety of not commonly-used programming languages:

• Write a non-trivial program in Brainfuck
• Write a program in Lua
• Write a program in Scala
• Write a program in Clojure
• Write a program in Groovy++

Learn a variety of frameworks:

• Write a web application with EJB/JSF
• Write a web application with Rails
• Write a web application with Grails
• Write a web application with Django
• Write a program with .Net
• Write a program with OpenGL
• Write a program with DirectX
• Write a program with Cocoa

Learn the principles

• Demonstrate in code with detailed comments on these principles, their benefits and pitfalls

  DRY

  KISS

  Favor Composition over Inheritance

  Law of Demeter

  Single Responsibility

  Fail-fast

  Defensive Programming

  Principle of Good Enough

  Principle of Least Astonishment

  Liskov Substitution

  Garbage in, Garbage out

  Hybrid Coupling

  Open-Closed

Learn a variety of editors/IDEs:

• Use vim extensively for a month
• Use TextMate extensively for a month
• Use emacs extensively for a month
• Use NetBeans extensively for a month
• Use Visual Studio extensively for a month
• Use IntellijIDEA extensively for a month
• Use Eclipse extensively for a month

Learn a variety of programming paradigms:

• Write a program in assembly language
• Write an application in a functional language
• Write an application in an object-oriented language
• Write an application in a prototype-based language
• Write an application in a logic programming language
• Write an application using the Actor model
• Write an application in Forth
• Write an application in a concatenative language (e.g. Joy)
• Write an application in a strict design-by-contract language (e.g. Eiffel)

Learn more math and statistics

• Refresh high school math material at Khan Academy
• Work through linear algebra material at Khan Academy
• Work through calculus material at Khan Academy
• Work through combinatorics material at Khan Academy
• Read Head First Statistics
• Work through statistics material at Khan Academy

Learn more about AI/ML

• Read "Clever Algoriths"
• Read "Collective Intelligence"
• Read "Genetic Algorithms"
• Read "Paradigms of AI Programming"
• Read "AI: A Modern Approach"
• Write a simple game AI
• Write an NLP app

Get comfortable in multiple operating systems:

• Use OSX exclusively for development for a month
• Use Linux exclusively for development for a month
• Use Windows exclusively for development for a month

Experience the ins and outs of programming in multiple fields:

• Write a nontrivial web app
• Write a nontrivial desktop app
• Write a nontrivial mobile app
• Write a nontrivial game
• Write an embedded app
• Write a realtime system

Enhance my understanding of the building blocks that we use as developers:

• Write a networking client (e.g., HTTP, FTP)
• Write a device driver
• Write a B-tree database
• Wrap an existing library to provide a better (more pleasant) user experience
• Write an application or framework that provides a plugin model
• Write a testing framework
• Write a programming language
• Write an operating system

Enlighten myself with koans, katas, and the wisdom of ages:

• Complete five code katas
• Complete the programming koans for a language that you want to learn
• Read SICP and complete all the exercises

Program in the open:

• Contribute to an open source project
• Have a patch accepted
• Earn commit rights on a significant open source project
• Publish an open source project
• Perform a Refactotum of on open source project

Learn by teaching others:

• Present a lightning talk
• Present at a local user group
• Present at a conference
• Deliver a training course
• Publish a tutorial
• Publish a constructive code review of an open source project
• Write a programming book

Read!

• Work through Learn C The Hard Way
• Work through Learn SQL The Hard Way
• Work through Learn Regex The Hard Way
• Work through Learn Ruby The Hard Way
• Work through Learn Python The Hard Way
• Work through The CLI Crash Course
• Work through Learn you Haskell for Great Good
• Work through Raganwalds combinator book