It's been an hour, I've deleted everything I've written twice now. It just means my thoughts are half baked. I was wondering about my own experience with learning to program and looking for avenues to get better at it. The strange thing is that, I am willing to face and overcome harder or long lasting challenges. Partly because now I know that I can figure it out. Comparing this to the time when I was learning how to program, I would have quit the browser project on day two. I have gained some experience over the last five years, and that does help a lot. But I've stuck through with projects more consistently than I have ever before. There are some differences to my approach too.
1. Do less
This one seems obvious, but currently I only have two projects going on. One of them is out of total curiosity and fuels the other one. The problems are well defined for both, so is the end goal.
2. Do the minimum (at the least) but consistently
If I were to give my twenty year old self any advice it would be this. Focus on the minimum that you can do right now and do that. Especially useful for type-b personalities (I fall somewhere in the middle). Part two of that advice would be, to do it daily. Yes, daily. Hence, why it's important how you define the minimum. Let the magic of compounding interest do the heavy lifting. Just show up, do the work and then go back home.
3. Dive deep
Do things you never thought you could do. Start removing the training wheels. Build things from scratch, from the ground up. Do it because you've always wanted to but never thought you could. Find books, that have done what you want to do, and just follow the instructions.
4. Read the friendly manual
Instructions are good, they make your life easier. The good thing is that after the first few reads, you will have to look at it fewer times. Once you understand the concepts, you can do the rest.
I'd never thought I'd have any advice for my twenty year old self. Maybe because I did not have any meaningful advice. I've heard that, this does not change much, i.e. your future self would come back and give a similar advice. So might as well save myself this effort from the future.