Why you should read
Read books and get ahead of everyone else.
Introduction
Most developers don't read books.
In fact, many even go their entire careers without reading a single book.
Reading books isn't necessary to become a great developer, but they can help accelerate your growth greatly.
Books are extremely underrated.
How books helped me
Reading books helped me grow and mature much faster as a developer.
There are many things I have learned from books that I either would never have learned my entire career or would have learned much later in my career.
Some examples that come to mind:
Test-Driven Development
The importance of domain knowledge
Why architecture should be decoupled
Professionalism in software engineering
I could go on with more examples.
Books taught me things the average software engineer would learn later in their career.
Books don't just teach you things, but the more you read, the more the way you think changes. The way you see and think about things. You can start to connect different things together and relate how one thing works to another.
Mentors
I’ve never had mentors, but I have been mentored.
What mentored me:
Books
Friends
Reading books lets you learn from experts with decades of experience.
On top of being taught new things, you learn mistakes to avoid.
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I have been reading books on various topics, from self-help to software engineering. They have taught me a lot and helped me to see things from different perspectives.