Don't Be Afraid to Make Mistakes in Tech

This is the second post from a series bringing you insights from the interview with Elder Moraes, that is a Java Champion, Red Hat Advocate, Mentor and Writer.

One topic that many people can relate to that Elder Moraes and I discussed on The Out of the Box Developer podcast was being afraid of making mistakes. It's a problem for many developers. In our conversation, we wanted to give some helpful ideas on how to overcome this fear and see mistakes as chances to learn.

Elder shared his experience with us, saying that "being afraid of mistakes can stop you from doing things, especially in tech where it's important to be precise. But, you need to know that mistakes will happen, and they actually help you grow."

I completely agreed and talked about how important it is to have a growth mindset during our podcast conversation. As I mentioned, "the best developers are not the ones who never make mistakes, but the ones who learn from them. You need to change your view from being afraid of mistakes to seeing them as helpful feedback."

We talked about some ways that can help developers stop fearing mistakes:

• Have a Learning Mindset: Start seeing mistakes as chances to learn and get better, not as failures.
• Start Small and Improve Step by Step: Break big tasks into smaller parts that are easier to handle. This makes things less stressful and easier to fix if you make errors.
• Get Feedback Early and Often: Don't wait until you are finished to show your work. Ask for feedback early and regularly. This helps you find problems sooner and avoid bigger mistakes later.
• Be Kind to Yourself: Don't be too hard on yourself when you make mistakes. It's normal, and everyone does it.
• Focus on Getting Better, Not Being Perfect: Being perfect is not possible. Instead, try to keep improving and getting better, instead of trying to write perfect code every time.

Elder's advice resonated deeply with me: "don't let being afraid of mistakes stop you. Accept them, learn from them, and keep moving forward. That's how you really improve your career." By changing how you think about mistakes, you can reach your full potential and grow faster as a developer.

And I will finish this post quoting Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right."

If you didn't watched the whole interview, you can to it clicking here.

In the next post, I will bring about Building Good Habits for a Successful Developer Career and the hints that Elder brought to us on this subject.

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See you in the next post!