Nobody warned me I'd spend most of my time reading code, not writing it
School and courses train you to produce code from a blank page. The actual job is 70% understanding what someone else already built — often years ago, often with zero comments.
I got way more effective the month I started treating "read the surrounding code first" as the real work instead of an annoying prerequisite to the "real" work. Anyone else feel like this is the most under-taught skill?
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AnonymousAnon The other underrated half of this: read good code on purpose, not just whatever you're assigned. I started reading the source of libraries I actually use and it quietly rewired how I structure my own stuff. You absorb taste by reading — same way writers read.
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AnonymousAnon So under-taught it's almost criminal. The habit that helped me: before changing anything, explain the existing code out loud like you're teaching it. If you can't, you don't understand it yet. Reading well is what makes the writing fast.