11 Months as a Self-Taught Developer – What Have I Learned?

Hello everyone!🥰
I haven’t been in this community for long, so like any newcomer, I wasn’t sure exactly what to share in my first posts.
There’s so much to say, you never really know what topic to post about until you place your hands on the keyboard.
So today, I want to share with you what I’ve learned over these 11 months as a self-taught developer.

In the beginning…

• Let me start by saying it wasn’t easy. I didn’t just struggle with the programming languages themselves HTML, CSS, JS, but even my laptop wasn’t very friendly with me at the start. Everything was new. I started by writing my first lines of code in Notepad, manually typing every piece.

• Now I realize how much that helped me understand the syntax, where to place curly braces, quotation marks, commas… whereas in Visual Studio, some things are added automatically. It was chaotic, the way I wrote code, the number of lines just to trigger a simple button event…🙃

• Later on, I began learning Git commands. At first, they seemed overwhelming and meaningless, but I focused on the ones I used most often, and gradually I started recognizing more and more of them.
Even now, I still discover new ones or revisit old ones I’ve forgotten.😄
Not long ago, I also started learning React and TypeScript. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel comfortable with the basics and can build projects with them.

• Slowly, things started to make sense.🤗 I got used to the syntax, the logic of the languages, I began creating small games, giving life to my curiosity, despite the fear of the unknown. I knew it would be hard, that it would take time and effort, but I didn’t let that overwhelm me. I put my fears and inner voice aside and started planning my learning path.

On a personal note…

• Even though everything was new and it felt like this reading would never end, I realized I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to learn every little detail. If I had tried to do that, I’d probably still be studying just CSS…🙃

• You don’t need to know everything perfectly. These languages were designed over years by teams of people, not by just one brain.
You can’t possibly learn an entire language in just a few months and then say: Alright, time for the next one…! It’s like trying to learn several spoken languages at once and wanting to master them perfectly in no time, your brain will eventually crash.

• In the beginning, the basics matter most. As you progress, you can build on them with intermediate concepts but don’t let those overwhelm you too soon.
Why⁉️ Because you’ll feel discouraged. You’ll feel like you’re just learning to check things off a roadmap, but you won’t see real progress using the knowledge you already have. And your inner voice will start saying: There’s too much to learn, too much to process, too much to memorize… give me a break.

• That’s when I realized: You have to work with your brain, not against it.🤗 Take breaks, even a few days off. That’s not wrong. Relax. Give yourself time to process what you’ve learned. Don’t overload yourself with too many concepts at once.Use short, focused work sessions. It’s not about how many hours you sit in front of the computer, if you’re tired and unfocused, you’ve only truly studied for 2–3 of those hours. But if you’re well-rested and focused for just 2-3 hours a day, you’ll feel the difference in learning and progress.

• It’s not about how long you study, it’s about consistency. Doing a bit every day matters more than cramming once a week. Being present, showing up, continuing, that’s what builds progress.🤗

About that inner voice…

• My inner voice used to work against me. It doubted me. It told me I couldn’t do it. That it wasn’t for me. Why⁉️ Because I never proved it wrong. I let it speak. I listened. But then, I stopped listening and
started proving it wrong. I thought that way because I wasn’t practicing enough. I wasn’t building projects, just collecting knowledge in my head, unorganized.

• That made me feel overwhelmed, and gave that inner voice all the power. But when I started applying what I was learning, building projects, putting things in order, that’s when my confidence grew.

• We started to become friends.🙃 I realized that inner voice was rushing the learning process. It didn’t let me enjoy daily progress or celebrate each new concept. It wanted too much, too fast. It was turning me from a perfectionist into an imperfectionist. So I said STOP❗

• I’m on this path, and it won’t take a year, or even two. It’s a lifelong journey. A path where I’ll always have something to learn and where curiosity will always be alive. You have to be friends with your inner self and show yourself that you trust yourself. Celebrate your progress, however small.

What challenges have I faced?

1. The right way for learning…

I had set up a daily schedule: study at least 3 hours a day.But often I was afraid to even start. Afraid of running into something I didn’t know, afraid of bugs in my code… So I started small just 10 minutes working on something I already knew. That helped me silence that inner fear, and show myself that I do know things, that each day adds another piece to the puzzle. To prove I’m not incapable or powerless. To overcome the fear of failure, because we learn through mistakes and bugs.

2. Time management

• Time used to scare me❗I felt it slipping by, pressuring me. I wanted more, and I wanted it fast. I started thinking I was learning too slowly, doubting my schedule, thinking I was stuck. But that’s because I wasn’t looking back at my progress.

• At the small projects I had created. The more I learned, the more I wanted to build amazing websites, but I didn’t want to spend time building, just learning.And that was wrong. It’s like learning math formulas without applying them. Or learning a new language but never writing in it, only speaking.

3. Developers and online noise

• I started learning from video tutorials. But soon, it became a storm of videos, like a loop. I watched more and more, hoping to learn more and more…But my eyes were tired, and without reviewing or applying anything, taking notes was almost pointless.

• Then I stumbled upon all kinds of online ads:
“You can build anything using just CSS and HTML…”,
“Learn to code in 3 months…”,
“Get hired in just a few months if you follow this course…”
Those things started to discourage me. I felt like I was moving too slowly. I started doubting myself: “Maybe it’s not for me⁉️”

• But the truth is, that’s not how real learning works. You can’t become a real developer in one year and be perfect. Everyone learns at their own pace. You’re not a robot. You can’t absorb programming in a few weeks and suddenly be a developer❗

In conclusion❤️

• It wasn’t easy in the beginning. But I had to be consistent. I had to prove to myself that I can, step by step.🥰 To learn from mistakes. To stop giving power to that inner voice. To become whole, strong. To learn from failures and trust the process❗

Work with yourself, not against yourself.🥰
Learn to enjoy the journey, not just chase the destination.🤗
As always, feel free to share your thoughts, your feedback means a lot to me. Thank you for reading, see you around!🥰🤗