I have been in blog silence for some time, i was busy starting my quest to be a better developer. It all started with Scott Hanselman's
podcast on "Be a Better Developer in six months", and a series of related blogs i read on the same topic. Since then, i have been busy with :-
- Reading blogs, lots of them. I am subscribed to about 64 blogs (mostly technical) right now, giving me more to read than i can handle everyday. Here's my google reader subscription list.
- Coding more - That's an obvious one, i guess :). More on this below.
- Podcasts - I currently listen to Hanselminutes, DotNetRocks, Channel9, and the Asp.Net podcast.
- Reading books - I guess this is more on being a better person than being a better developer. I try to read the books that other bloggers recommend. I do this 1 hour before sleeping and it really helps in relaxing and sleeping better. So far, i have covered
- Waking at 5 a.m - This gives me 2-3 hours everyday to focus on my own stuff, and coding on my project. I do not check email till i reach office.
I want to elaborate a little on the "Coding more" part. I work as a dot net consultant for a nice Fortune 500 company, but the work i do for them is well, repetitive. It does not cover all technical concepts that i would like to learn or play with. So, i have decided to work during my free time on my own project, its kind of like a social networking site. It doesn't sound very innovative, but i think it has the potential to mature in a real world app. I'll implement everything myself, from the UI to the DB layer to security and logging. I'll blog about the whole thing in a series i'll call
Building My Own Social Networking site. I'll talk about all the dilemnas i face, and the choices i make and why i make them.
I guess i could be a little more organized with my efforts, and should be able to bring in more structure in my routine as time passes. I have not, however, set up a timeline for my goals, but i already feel that i know much more than i used to, and that the initiative is working. I have too much to learn and do not see this ending any time soon.
Till next time!
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