Most online content seems heavily skewed towards complete beginners or specific tools/frameworks. I'm looking to grow as a developer in general - not just learn another technology.
The gap I'm struggling with isn't technical knowledge - it's about making better engineering decisions and writing better code. I want to understand how to design robust applications, choose the right approaches for real-world scenarios, and make informed technical decisions when faced with multiple valid solutions.
What pushed you beyond the basics phase? Please share your advice about the same.
Question whether what you're doing is the right way, or the easy way.
Participate and observe discussions. Learn by osmosis.
Refactor. Question your earlier assumptions. Which were correct, which weren't? What mistakes were foreseeable in retrospect? How would you do things differently?
Often the starting process of a refactor - working out what you'd change - is about 50% of the learning and 25% of the effort of actually doing it.
That said, I'm 18, I'm going through this process as well. There's a big difference between making something work and making something work properly.