most coders want to work in big Tech but most coders won't most coders want to become good programmers but the reality is most coders won't and the reason why is because a good coder does not equal a good programmer think of coding like writing sentences and think of programming like writing an entire storyline and if you can't think like a programmer well how do you expect to do that so this is how to think like a programmer the blackbox method let's say you need to develop some code that takes in two lists and outputs the
merged results of these two lists a good programmer will immediately think of two things how to test this code and how to scale and notice how we haven't actually implemented any code yet this is what the blackbox method is essentially we know the inputs and outputs of our code but we deliberately don't worry about the internal workings just yet now why is this important well first it forces you to focus on the bigger picture by treating your code as a black box you have clear expectations for what the code should do for example if I
give it two lists one containing 135 and the other 2 46 the output should be 1 through six how the code achieves this isn't important at this stage but what matters is that it takes these inputs and reliably produces the correct output for one this allows you to create test cases with Edge scenarios like empty lists list with only one items or repeating elements and two this method is essential to help modularize and scale your code because let's say you have a much bigger project with several components by thinking in terms of black boxes you
naturally break your system into several independent parts that interact with each other this allows you to focus on relationships and a clear goal driven design when coding this also means that if one of these boxes needs to be updated or optimized you can do so without affecting the rest of the system so basically the black box method is just a cooler term for abstraction and as you can tell abstraction allows you to manage complexity by breaking down a problem into much smaller pieces without getting bogged down in the details too early which is an essential
mindset for a programmer collaboration isn't just a soft skill it's a core skill for any successful program if you're not good at collaborating with others how do you expect to ever land a tech job for example let's say you need to come up with an algorithm that's going to be reused in other parts of the codebase this isn't something you can just whip up in isolation and call it a day you need to think about things like how this algorithm will fit into the existing system how it'll interact with other components and how other team
members will use it so basically you need to realize you're not just writing code for yourself you're writing it for your team and the last thing they want is to look at your code and not understand it at all so it's up to you to ensure that your code is clean well documented and easy to understand make sure you use meaningful names follow coding conventions and use comments basically try and make your code as easy to understand as possible you'll know you're on the the right track when your teammates can pick up your code and
understand it without needing a deep dive into your thought process and you also need to recognize that the algorithm you write today might be maintained by someone else tomorrow so it's important you consider how your coding decisions can impact the team in the long run will it be easy to update if the requirements change have you built it in a way that makes it easy for extensions or refactoring and the more you think about these things the more of a habit they'll become and trust me if you can get in the habit of making readable
and adjustable code you'll already be thinking more like a programmer than a coder improve the wheel this one might be controversial but in my experience a good programmer knows when to use other code for their advantage now when I say use other code I don't just mean use chat gbt to write your whole project let's say you need to develop some sort of user authentication system you could spend weeks or even months developing this from scratch but why do that when there's countless well- tested libraries and Frameworks like ooth or JWT which have already solved
this problem so basically what I'm saying is you need again the habit of using tools like these to solve your problems for you it's not about being lazy it's about being smart as a programmer your time and energy are the most important things you have and they should be spent on the parts of the project that truly require your unique input but let me be clear using other code doesn't mean just blindly copying and pasting without understanding what's happening under the hood you should always take the time to learn the tools you're working with this
way you're not just assembling code you're building a deep understanding of the systems as well now some might argue that using pre-built libraries or Frameworks means you're not really learning or improving but that's not true at all in fact by using tools you're exposing yourself to the industry standards and new ways of thinking you're learning how to integrate different components how to read and understand other people's code and how to make informed decisions about which tools are right for the job which are all essential skills to think like a programmer think in terms of processes
if you're a beginner you've probably spent the majority of your time mastering one or two programming linku and this is great because it helps you build a strong Foundation but what happens when you need to learn a new language because let's face it every company uses different Technologies and you'll inevitably need to adapt the key is to think in terms of processes rather than just code because when you focus only on the specifics of one or two languages you limit yourself to that language's Paradigm but programming is more than just knowing how to write for
Loops or functions in Python it's about understanding the underlying Concepts and methodologies that are used everywhere so you need to start by really understanding the different possible solutions for a problem before even thinking about the code for example if you're asked to build a feature that sorts a list of items instead of immediately writing code think about the process what's the most efficient way to sort this data what are the trade-offs between different sorting algorithms or let's say you get asked to create a class that can insert and remove elements you need to think about
which data structures will be best fit for your specific constraints and specifications these are all examples of what makes a good programmer knowing what to use and when to use it and if you get really good at understanding these processes figuring out how to apply it into code will become 100 times easier because from here all you have to do is convert your process into the specifics of whatever language you're using and it's also important to understand that your first processes might not always be the best so it's up to you to be willing to
iterate on your ideas and adapt your approaches because overall if you want to think like a programmer you need to be willing to adapt to new ideas and change your existing on let's talk about something that can make or break a programmer failure in programming failure is not just inevitable it's valuable every error bug and failure to solve a problem is one step towards your learning you see pretty much everyone at every level makes mistakes and it's impossible to write perfect code all the time which is why you need to start seeing bugs as an
an opportunity to understand your code and to better improve it you need to recognize that failure isn't a setback it's feedback when something goes wrong view it as an opportunity to learn from your mistake this mindset is crucial because programming is all about problem solving and real world problems are often really messy and error Pro so instead of viewing failure as a roadblock if you really want to be a good programmer you need to continuously improve on your failures and not be discouraged overall I hope I helped you gain a better understanding of how to
think like a programmer
