To cut to the chase, this article today is a few tips for programmers. Okay, I’m bloated. I don’t even want to give advice.

1. Study consistently and efficiently

Since the second half of last year, large and small companies have been laying off workers one after another. The good time to find a job has gone forever, unlike a few years ago to learn an Android, ios training class, easy to find a 20,000 yuan job.

Nowadays the competition is so fierce, we should keep learning and improving ourselves to stay competitive.

Most people know the benefits of learning, but learning is hard, most people can not stick to it, if you still insist on learning, then congratulations you have surpassed many people.

In addition to learning consistently, you should also learn efficiently. The more you can learn per unit of time, the better.

Ten years ago, when I started working, I mainly learned by buying books, soaking in CSDN, JavaEye and reading blogs. If you still rely on reading books and articles now, I think it is not efficient.

With so many high quality video courses available these days, learning is much faster than reading, so find some great courses and spend some money appropriately. Plus, spending money puts pressure on yourself, and if you don’t learn, money is wasted, making it easier to stick with it.

Don’t be reluctant to spend money on learning. Investing in yourself is more reliable than investing in other things. Besides, there are few good investment opportunities available to ordinary people, such as housing, the stock market, P2P and cryptocurrency.

That’s not to say that spending money is the only way to learn effectively. You can find other productive ways, fine.

2. Broaden your horizons and be economically savvy

Programmers are generally more interested in technical details and principles than in application scenarios. Instead, it’s the application scenarios that make technology more valuable.

The best example is the blockchain that caught fire in the last two years. Blockchain itself is not a new technology, and various technologies used have been around for many years. However, it was not until the popularity of Bitcoin and Ethereum that blockchain technology became the focus.

At that time, in addition to a variety of chaotic coin issuance, speculation, blockchain technology has not found a particularly suitable application scenarios. Later, crypto cat using Ethereum technology was born suddenly and became a phenomenon DApp. People engaged in blockchain research and development found that the original technology can be used in this way, so a pile of crypto dogs, monkeys, rabbits, dragons and so on followed the trend. The zoo doesn’t have enough animals.

You can’t imagine how valuable a technology can be unless you can raise your vision and see and think about the application scenarios on top of it.

Also, if you build an internal system or tool that actually solves some pain points, don’t feel like the end of the project. You need to be financially savvy and think about how this internal project can help the company make some money. If it solves the internal problem, maybe there are a lot of people outside who want it too, and it could turn into a profitable project by accident.

3. Learn more skills and broaden your knowledge

I often advise Java programmers around me to learn Python and Go when they have time. You don’t have to do AI or blockchain to learn these two languages. It didn’t hurt to learn more, and as I learned, I found that Python was much easier to solve problems that I had previously struggled with in Java.

Everyone is the same. You should learn more skills to broaden your knowledge so that you can find better solutions when you encounter problems.

I used to make games for a period of time. At that time, smartphone came into being when people were still addicted to mobile games and page games. However, many experts believed that the hardware of mobile phones was not good, the screen was too small, and the buttons were too few to operate.

Our boss thinks that the world will be dominated by mobile phones in the future, so he wants us to learn android and ios game development in advance. We all know the trend of the future. Because we prepared early and started fast, we enjoyed the bonus of mobile Internet for a long period of time. The days of less competitive products and cheap purchase were very cool.

This illustrates two points: first, because the boss has enough knowledge and insight, can make independent judgment, not just parrot, not just believe what experts say. Second, the extra skill you learn, if you think it’s going to be a trend in the future, even if it’s not mainstream yet, you learn it early so you can enjoy the first mover advantage later.

4. Be legal and protect yourself

You see this topic, may not understand, to give you a hint, a few years ago fast broadcast things still remember.

Technology is not guilty, but if technology is used in conjunction with crime, that is different.

You may ask, “If I don’t participate in the project of gambling, gambling and drugs, is there no risk?”

Two days ago, I read a real story on Zhihu. A programmer was put into detention because of his crawler program, which was suspected of destroying the computer information system. He was just in charge of the crawler side, working with a lot of people, a lot of partners enjoying the convenience of his technology. The saddest part is, until he gets inside, he doesn’t know who the criminal is or what he’s involved in.

Now this society is too complicated, I hope we should have some legal common sense, know where the bottom line is, can not take the initiative to participate in evil, but also to prevent being used.

Even if your technology is not illegal, it is still liable if it is used by criminals. Watch out for being sold and counting money.

5. Improve your hands-on skills

When I say hands-on, I don’t mean to make a simple demo during the learning process, nor do I mean to learn from a ready-made example while practicing code.

It means that if you have an idea and you can do it yourself, you do it.

Your idea must come from the real needs around you, never imagine a need, or after you make it, it is likely that no one will use it, even you do not want to use it.

Really, the start on the start, do an Android game, micro channel small program… Don’t look down on the little things, if you make something small and beautiful, you might have a chance to turn it into a hit, if it’s the next Flappy Bird.

Hands-on process will exercise your ability in all aspects, you are the product, you are the development, you have to consider interaction, you have to consider promotion and so on, no matter how small the product is all the five organs.

Finally, to paraphrase an old street saying, “It’s the worst of times, it’s the best of times.” Things are down, competition is fierce, but opportunities abound. The Times are changing and the society is developing. We should not only work in silence, but also look up at the road.

I hope the above advice will help you.

About me: more than 15 years old program ape, 100 people technical team manager, game start-up did not make money, writing fear patients zhen · si Ape. I was not good at writing before, but recently DECIDED to tackle my weaknesses head-on and share my experience and expertise through writing. Follow my wechat official account (Siape Wai) for more articles.