Be a Just in Time Learner, part I

Dear new developer,

There’s the concept of a JIT compiler. I was first introduced to it with the HotSpot Java compiler. The idea is that a compiler can look at code and find the code that executes often and optimize it, sometimes compiling it down to faster code, sometimes unrolling loops. I’m no compiler expert or even intermediate, but the results speak for themselves. JIT has spread elsewhere (python, ruby, javascript).

As a new developer, you should be a just in time learner. Just like the compiler watches to see what is used often and then optimizes the code that runs fast and often, you should do the same. That’s why I recommended you learn version control and a text editor. These are tools that, as a software developer, you spend a lot of time in. So learning them well will save you time in the long run.

But what about the intricacies of a language or framework. That’s important too. But it depends on how often you predict the issue will come up.

Here’s a great chart from XKCD.

If you spend two hours remembering how to do something but you only do it yearly, and you learn it well enough to do it in one hour, you save five hours over five years. Does this make a lot of sense?

So, basically, I’m saying optimize for the things you do often. Another way you can do that is to make what you learn do double duty:

• When you learn SQL you learn a way to query across multiple different databases.
• When you learn javascript, you are learning a language that you can use on the front end (in the browser) and the back end (on the server).
• When you learn vi keystrokes, you can use them to edit a text file in a terminal on any unix machine, on the command line to navigate your history and directory structures, and in eclipse or visual studio.

Sincerely,

Dan