How can you learn a new programming language as a software engineer?

Un lenguaje es una herramienta. El hecho de que todavía usemos lenguajes de programación escritos para expresarle nuestras ideas a una PC, deja claro que las Ciencias de la Computación están aún en pa?ales. Puedes elegir cualquier lenguaje, algunos te harán entrar escalar más rápido que otros en el mercado laboral, pero lo importante es que aprendas los conceptos esenciales de la Computación (estructuras de datos + algoritmos, principios filosóficos del dise?o del software, etc.)

Step 1 before getting here: Pick any one language and understand it throughly. Ex: Python or Javascript. Step 2: Understand the language that your industry commonly use and choose one Step 3: Learn how to handle different data types in this language Step 4: Understand basic syntax/ take the shortest possible tutorial Step 5: Start working on a mini project using this language The real learning happens when you code and reference the documentation during the process.

You also want to pick a more challenging project than your current language. If you write JavaScript or python already, consider picking up GO. If you write GO already consider picking up Rust, C++ or C. If you already write any of those, you can consider picking up Haskell. The idea is to write something that deepens your knowledge about engineering.

It also helps to do a bit of research into the tools your company uses, the common stack in your field the emerging technologies. These findings change over time and vary person to person

Start seeing coding languages as tools: hammer, drill, saw, ... You need to wield multiple to build and no you cannot use the hammer for everything. Every language sucks at something. Right tool for right job.

Avoid courses like the plague. Online tutorials teach you nothing. Hello world gave you a false sense of accomplishment. Instead have real purpose. Have a real app in mind to help out a real person. Start building towards that. You'll quickly realise that all these tutorials focus too much on syntax and methods you will never need in real life projects. Also the reality is that your app requires a myriad of code languages. No one language will build it all. The sooner you have a real project in mind, the sooner you'll theoretical bullshit of courses. ??

Instead of wasting time on tutorials, I always recommend to build a small app in the language you are trying to learn. In this way you actually do the work and end up learning a lot instead of tutorials pitfall where you just keep on wasting time and not actually doing anything. So one thing I would recommend is just write a Chat APP. you get work on Rest + WS + file handling (uploading attachments) + UI + Auth

Let a current code base and AI be your teacher and you can't go wrong really. There is a debate if AI make s you dumber or smarter, well the choice is really yours. Learning is asking the right questions and the dumb questions to a teacher that never judges. That is the power of AI.

I find the free courses online very helpful and self paced. Once you feel confident you can start testing your skills in sites such as leetcode.

You can begin with online courses to gain a broad overview of knowledge, but for deeper understanding, it's important to read books and, of course, practice through real projects.

A very important step! Depending on your level you can take different paths. For a Junior engineer following reading official docs and seeing how to do basic things like print, loop would help and then as you gain confidence try out different projects to build, for a example simple CLI, or CRUD app, etc, depending on the language. For a Mid-Senior Engineer, reading the official docs and then doing some problem solving just get the hang of the language yet keeping it fun (maybe some leetcode problems) and then dive into building something with it like a chat app, which will allow you to utilize advanced features of the language such as networking and others. But remember, each one of us learn differently! Do what suits you best.

Learning by doing has always worked for me. Here are my steps: 1. Define the project and set up the goal that you want to develop. 2. Follow frameworks, tutorials, best practices, or success open source project. 3. Avoid copying and pasting; instead, write the code yourself. 4. Understand each part of the tutorial. 5. Once you start enjoying the language, try implementing solutions on your own.

My goto way to learn a new piece of technology is to implement in some project either hobby project or small freelance project or convincing at Job.

One thing I would suggest here is to give yourself a reasonable deadline to complete tasks. Try to have a mental space of having to get it done and prepare dedicated times for practice. Discipline is key

Having a little black book to keep your ideas in is a good start. Inspiration usually starts with being frustrated or impatient with the way something works for me. Once I acknowledge what I wish worked better and I think ‘what if’ I could write a couple of lines of code to make my life easier. It’s adopting this mindset that lets me be creative and keeps me excited to continue to learn and implement programming. You should then take ownership and pride in what you create from then, as it was conceived by you. Put it on GitHub and share your ideas. You’ll become more confident in your abilities to think creatively and develop a sense of what ideas are more useful than others as time passes.

Amen! Find all the other geeks who love the same coding languages you do. Their companies will organise free seminars and meetups with free food, presentations, mingle time and job opportunities. Find the companies that also use the obscure coding language you love. Git paid to learn. $$$

Linkedin is a decent place to share but I feel like Discord is the best to learn and teach and share and collaborate even. Indulge in what you find fun and with the people share that joy and you will organically develop your software along with your new relationships.

Learning isn't a single task that you can finish. Even if you believe you have achieved your goal with the new language, just keep learning! You will be surprised when you discover new and easier ways to do things that you've already done. Even if you don't want to change stuff that you have already done in your work, continuing to learn will help you in future greatly. Personally, this happened to me a lot. So my advice is to never stop learning.

If you want to stay young than keep learning and playing. Keep it fun and you will always have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

Of course, you need to engage in continuous learning to explore new aspects of the language and to stay updated with its latest features.

Dive into new coding challenges regularly to expand your programming skills and knowledge. Also Challenge yourself with coding exercises and projects to apply theoretical knowledge to practical scenarios

One thing I keep in mind is that learning a language is more than just programming with that language. Step outside and look in. The language(s) you are working with will have other languages, frameworks, and libraries that compliment them. Part of learning something is being aware of its full scope and capabilities, as well as, where it may fall short. Research and listen to other programmers, take in their approach to problems and solutions, gather and store it in your wheel-house with your translation. If the way you translate it works, then you are properly learning...not regurgitating someone else's approach.

I would always argue for the benefit of understanding general computer science (CS) concepts when both evaluating and learning new languages. This can provide key insights that can hone one's intuition into how to most effectively use a language. E.g., one of the first things I always want to know about a new language is: are function arguments 'pass by value' or 'pass by reference'? This simple fact will have highly non-trivial consequences! Another important issue is how strongly 'typed' the language is (the casting of a float to an integer is the cause of many a bug). Then there is the question of how well true object orientation is implemented (not very well in many cases) or whether the language permits multi-threading.

Programming languages come into families. The process of learning another in a family you know e.g. from Java to C# is a lot more straight forward than learning a language in a different family as that usually requires to learn to think of problem solving in a different way e.g. from C# (OO language) to F# (functional). Consider your long term objectives as the effort required for crossing language families is typically considerably higher. For languages that mix both object and functional paradigm, consider which one you want to focus and adopt as your dominant style.

Stay engaged with the programming community through forums, meetups, and online platforms to exchange ideas and learn from others' experiences.

Speaking with other developers about what you are working on, how you are approaching it, and declaring your "Aha moments" can open a world of conversational knowledge. Do this, BUT don't forget that you once didn't know the technical jargon. I say this because explaining the same thing to a non-programmer can be very helpful to you as well. When you talk about your strides to a layman, you have to use layman terms. It forces you to really get to the heart of how and why something works or fails. This will almost always unearth another "Aha moment".