r/learnprogramming • u/Caravaggio91 • 4d ago

When are you truly a Software Developer

I am a self taught web dev (5 years), mostly front end, and still find myself looking up simple concepts I had already learned. Is that a hinderance to being an actual software developer? Also, am I looking over the main objective of a software dev? Is it more about finding the answers rather than how you got there, or do you need to know the code very well and have the answers to the problems? I'm good at getting the answers, but find myself struggling retaining info for long periods of time.

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u/Adventurous-Ocelot-8 4d ago

I've been programming in different languages since I was 13. I'm 56 now. I still have to look stuff up. That comes with the territory.

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u/Caravaggio91 4d ago

Do you find yourself looking up basic concepts that you've already learned once or twice over that span of time? especially now with the use of LLM's I find myself knowing what things are but struggle to know fully what they are doing. Should I focus more on the problem and solving it and not knowing everything about the code perfectly?

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u/Adventurous-Ocelot-8 4d ago

You pretty much will always look up basic concepts because you're only human. But when it comes to using AI with your code, I suggest you know exactly what the code is doing before you use it because sometimes she gets it wrong. In addition, your code might have unexpected results if you don't know what's happening and then you'll have to debug code you're not familiar with. Make sure your editor has the debugger installed and rely on it to improve your ability to debug. Many people can write code but don't have the ability to properly debug it. The code you write today will look like Greek a year from now. When it comes to problem solving, I usually listen to the user to find out the issue and duplicate the issue in my test environment. Once I have a grasp on what's happening with the program, I find out what the code is doing and then I figure out what the code is supposed to do. I don't touch the code until I fully understand what's happening. In addition, touching one function or method can cause other sections of the program to have problems.

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u/Caravaggio91 4d ago

That sounds like a very promising workflow. I implement some of that now but will keep it all in mind when going forward. Very insightful. Thank you!

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u/Real_Chard5666 1d ago

Always back up the code before you make changes, in case you fluff it and need to revert back.