The #100DaysOfCode challenge is a tried and true write of passage for all aspiring software developers. I’ve been seeing a lot of devs grinding away at their 100 days of code challenge, and I’ve decided to join in. Today, I wanted to share some of the benefits of tackling this challenge and why you might want to try it yourself.
Commitment
100 days is a long time. Sticking to something for 100 days is not easy. But there’s a reason that you want to do this. Committing to this challenge is committing to yourself and your future. When you commit to this challenge, you will not have to waste energy asking yourself, “should I code today?” because you know the answer is “yes”.
There will be many days when you do not feel like continuing with the challenge. Maybe you’re tired, or had a bad day, or are too busy. But you will force yourself to sit down and work when you do not feel like it because you have made a commitment.
Discipline
You’ve committed to sitting down and working hard every day. But how you work is just as important. Some days you will want to rush ahead to the next exciting concept without mastering the fundamentals. Approaching this challenge with discipline means knowing what needs to be done and doing it (whether you feel like it or not.)
It’s easy to mess this part up without realizing it, but discipline is the key to mastery. Taking the time to learn things properly will be the difference between becoming a competent, capable developer or someone who can write some code.
Persistence
Learning to code takes a long time. It’s not something that you can master in one sitting. Some days you will fly through your work, solving problems with ease. You will feel like a literal God. Other days you’ll get stuck debugging for hours only to find that the issue was an errant semicolon… You’ll feel like the biggest idiot in the entire world.
It’s an emotional rollercoaster. If you’re going to be a programmer, then strap in, because that’s just something you have to get used to. You’ll learn a lot about how to do hard things. You will learn how to remain persistent in the face of problems, even when you have no idea how to solve them.
You’ll also learn the best debugging tip out there, and that is this: take a step away from the problem. Your brain will continue to mull it over as you go about the rest of your life, and when you come back tomorrow, you’ll probably have arrived at a solution. It’s like magic.
External Motivation
(for when internal motivation fails you)
When you’re starting out every small win is exciting. The basics are easy to learn, but hard to master. Once you start running into problems you don’t know how to solve, it’s easy to turn off your computer and give up. It’s easier to scroll or binge than it is to code.
If you’ve publicly committed to posting updates you will have the pressure of public embarrassment to keep you going. Whether that’s a healthy motivator or not, is perhaps up for debate, but it’s effective!
Efficient Learning
Learning something difficult takes consistent effort. If you code every few days (or weeks) you will forget everything between sessions, waste precious time reviewing concepts from the previous day, and won’t make significant progress. When you code every day, concepts from yesterday will still be fresh in your mind, and you can build upon that knowledge.
Community
Teaching yourself how to code can be a lonely and isolating activity. You’re doing the hard things, and running into problems on the daily. Your emotions are all over the place, and nobody around you is experiencing the same things as you. It sucks.
But thousands of people online are on the same journey, struggling with the same problems. Doing things together is easier and more enjoyable, so why would you choose to go it alone? Make friends with people who are just like you. Help each other. Have fun!
Plus, when it comes time to land a job, your friends might know someone-who-knows-someone who’s hiring. And that could make all the difference in this tough job market!
If you finish the challenge, I can 100% guarantee that you will be a significantly better developer than you were when you started. I would even go as far as to say that you will be a better person than you were when you started.
You will have learned a lot about yourself, you will push your limits, and you will gain valuable skills and mindsets that will serve you in everything you do for the rest of your life.