Abstract: Code, Learn by doing, iOS, Work, iOS Communities, Articles
Day after day I try to be a better iOS developer. There isn’t an easy way to achieve it, but during my last year I learned some tips that can be useful, especially those which have worked for me.
My job is close from home. It only takes me 15 minutes to arrive there, so meanwhile I take my mobile phone and I read advanced articles from different iOS communities that keep me updated (iOS Goodies, iOS Dev Weekly, objc.io, personal blogs such as Natasha the robot, Krzystof Zablocki, etc). There is really some good stuff on them. On the weekend I prefer read advanced books, like Advanced Swift, Functional Swift, etc
Three days a week I wake up early and I run 4-6 miles. While I was running I was just listening to the music (big Spotify fan). However, nowadays I listen to audiobooks in order to improve my English listening skills, (and yes, I do pay for the audiobooks), Everything That Remains or Steve Jobs
I also like to experiment with cool articles that I read in different blogs (blogs like those I have mentioned above). What do I learn? tips, different mobile architecture patterns, functional reactive programming, tests, continuous delivery, continuous integration, etc. I also think that learning by doing is important. Sometimes, I read something that is interesting but if I don’t code it is impossible to understand it at all to me. So, I benefit form my spare time to code and keep on improving.
There are seasons in the year that I’m too busy; workdays are hard. When I arrive home, there’s no way to code to me since I do my best at work. Thus, I haven’t the time I wished to keep on coding. That’s why I try to develop new things during the weekend.
Other key learnings I’ve learned during this last year are, try to learn as much as you can from your coworkers, BE HUMBLE. Trust me; By being humble, you’ll be more open-minded and, thus, freer. You’ll learn much more things you expected to do. Even if your coworkers are juniors, there might be things that you learn about them: tips, new resources, etc.
I recommend you to be an active user at Github, or StackOverflow. Use Github in order to create open source projects and cooperate with other awesome developers (ask if you don’t know how to use a repository). StackOverflow is a great source to search code questions or to answer them.
As you can see, I just created a new blog, I will write entirely in English to improve my skills and to spread my knowledge over the iOS Community.
Coding is my passion. I love what I do and I hope I can do it as long as possible.
Summary
- Read a lot (iOS communities and advanced books).
- Put in practice what you have learned. (Learning by doing method).
- Share your knowledge.