Hey HN,<p>I've spent 10 years working as a software engineer now, and I can't help but feel that I'm very shallow in almost everything that I do. I've worked for small early-stage startups, and a FAANG and now am at a midsize corporation. Happy with my job but I want to double down on being a developer.<p>I want to build impressive things. I want to try my hand at a text editor from scratch. I want to build an HTTPS proxy that works at the byte level, opening sockets and applying encryption. I want to do all these things and whenever I start these projects I realize that my only skill that I have is building applications on top of modern frameworks and libraries.<p>I have no understanding of the fundamentals, don't know when to reach for more powerful data structures, algorithms, etc. I'd like to have an understanding but I've just never built it.<p>I've fallen prey in the past to the "shiny new thing" syndrome and now am doubling down on a small set of languages to "Get Stuff Done." How can I double down on being a developer? How do you improve on technical skills 10 years into your career? It's been ages since I've had a mentor to look after me and help me to get better at what I'm doing. What do you all do to keep building relevant skills and keep improving?<p>I've spent plenty of time improving soft skills as well, but really love the technical side.<p>Thanks in advance for any help/responses.
I've found that diving into a project and figuring out what needs to be done is the best way to get going specially if the project has zero chance of causing damage. Writing a text editor seems live a doable even if you decide to write it in assembler. You need to pick a project, break it down to pieces you can handle and go for it. Your job is to pick a task and decide and learn how to accomplish it. Keep in mind that you need to finish so add a deadline and be consistent. Do not fall into the trap that you can take forever to finish. If you do that,you will fail. Pick a project, copy it if you need to, and start. Keep it simple and add complexity as you move forward. So start and pick a deadline today. Stop thinking about it.