I'm just starting out on my frontend learning journey right now, and I noticed something while reading about CSS on MDN: I love to read.
This is not news to me. Over the last 7 years, I read many fantasy novels with 500 pages or more, among them series as large as the "Wheel of time" series and the "Stormlight Archives". I love to read. I grew up in a family of readers, and it is one of the things I am most grateful for in my life.
But I never realized that it is probably one of the biggest reasons for my success as a software developer as well. In this article, I want to go into the reasons why I think this is true.
First, our job is to read and write. Aside from communicating in person or over Zoom calls, that's all we do, day in and day out. This won't even change with AI. So what if we focus more on verification than on code? Verification also involves a lot of reading, be that test scenarios, test reports, reading the descriptions of functionality in new types of frontends we have to deal with...it's reading, all day every day, all day long. With AI this might even be significantly enhanced.
Since reading is a big part of your job, it makes sense that your reading skills are a big part of your success or failure as a software developer too. It makes a big difference if you are reading a text half distracted, the content barely registering, or if you're reading with your full, undivided attention. The better you get at reading, the easier it is to focus on what you read. And the easier it is to focus on what you read, the easier it is to understand what you read.
But how do you get better at reading? It's simple, really: You read. There is no mystery to it, but there are also no shortcuts. If you want to get better at reading, you have to read. Fortunately for us, we live in a time with more possibilities for reading than ever.
For me personally, what really changed how much I read is discovering ebooks. It used to be the case that if you didn't have a lot of physical space for storing books, you couldn't have a big library. With ebooks, this is not true anymore. I have hundreds of books in my ebook library (not all of which I have read to be honest), something that before ebooks would have been impossible for someone living in a one room flat. Ebook readers also make it easier to read while in bed, which is something that I absolutely love to do and which is still my bed time ritual.
Some ebooks also allow you to access online libraries, and alternatively there are relatively cheap ebooks abo services like Kindle Unlimited. With all these possibilities, ebooks can open up worlds of reading that are much harder to access with print books. Although of course not all books are available as ebooks, nowadays many are.
But aside from books, there are now more good resources for learning online than ever. Documentation, sites dedicated to teaching like the Mozilla Developer Network, are all excellent for learning - if you can read.
Of course learning styles differ, and it is good that we have things like video courses too. But reading, especially reading fiction like fantasy or science fiction, has an additional benefit that videos don't have: They train your imagination. And imagination is a big deal for software developers. If you can't imagine how new knowledge can be applied to solve problems, the types of problems you can solve will be severely limited. So reading helps you with being able to tackle new problems as well.
And finally: Reading is a calmer form of entertainment than TV or watching videos on your computer. Thus picking up reading as a hobby can also help you slow down after a long day of staring into a computer.
None of this is to say you should drop everything you do in your free time and read for hours on end. I myself read a lot, but I read in a lot of short bursts, often just a few minutes at a time. Reading just a few minutes, then doing something unrelated and coming back to it a few minutes later keeps you fresh, and if you consistently follow this practice you'll get way more reading into your day then if you try (and probably fail) to start with reading hours at a time.
There is an endless number of topics you can read about. Follow only your intuition on this. If it seems interesting, pick it up and read it. The only thing that matters is that you enjoy it. You'll do something nice for yourself that way, and still get to practice a vital skill for work.
I hope this article was pleasant to read, and would love to hear your thoughts on reading as a practice strengthening your developer journey.
Happy reading!
