If I could delete every line I’ve ever written and start from absolute zero again right now, end of 2025, I would throw out almost everything I did the first time around.
The internet is full of beginner guides that haven’t changed since 2018.
They still tell you to follow along with videos, copy-paste code, and feel good when the page finally loads.
That path is slow, fragile, and leaves you clueless the moment something breaks in the real world.
I’m not giving you that path.
I’m giving you the exact plan I would follow if I had to become a real engineer all over again, starting tomorrow.
Here’s what I would burn into my brain from the very first day.
I Would Never Write Code I Don’t Fully Own
Copy-pasting from Stack Overflow or a YouTube tutorial feels fast.
It’s not.
It’s the slowest way to learn.
Every single example I see, I would type out by hand.
Then I would change one thing.
Then another.
Then I would delete half of it and watch what breaks.
I would keep going until the only way the code works again is because I actually understand it.
That habit turns you from someone who “got it working” into someone who can build anything, anywhere, under pressure.
Skip it and you’ll spend years fixing bugs you never truly understood in the first place.
Errors Would Be My Teacher, Not My Enemy
Most beginners see red text and immediately search “how to fix [exact error]”.
I did that for way too long.
If I started over, the moment an error appears I would force myself to sit with it for at least ten minutes before looking anywhere else.
Read every line.
Copy the stack trace into a new file.
Reproduce the problem in the smallest possible piece of code.
Only then would I let Cursor or Copilot explain it.
That forces your brain to build the debugging muscle that separates juniors from people who get paid real money.
I’d Assume Every User Is Actively Trying to Destroy My App
Perfect inputs don’t exist outside of tutorials.
Users will leave fields empty.
They will paste entire essays into a phone number field.
They will lose connection halfway through a form.
They will upload a 5GB video when you asked for a profile picture.
If I started again, every single piece of code that touches the outside world would be wrapped in defensive logic from day one.
Check for null.
Validate types.
Sanitize strings.
Handle timeouts.
Return helpful messages instead of crashing.
Do this early and you never have to wake up at 3 a.m. because production exploded.
Skip it and you’ll learn the hard way, exactly like I did.
I Would Ship Something Public Every Single Week
Hiding code because it’s “not perfect” is the most expensive mistake beginners make.
If I started over, every Friday I would get other people to use my beloved software or read my code.
A calculator.
A to-do list.
A script that scrapes prices.
Doesn’t matter.
The moment strangers can see it, they will break it in ways you never imagined.
They will ask questions you can’t answer.
They will point out things that are stupid.
That pain is pure rocket fuel.
One year of weekly public shipping beats five years of private “perfect” projects.
I’d Build for Real Humans, Not Just for Green Tests
Getting a feature to run locally is the easy part.
Making someone actually use it and come back tomorrow is the hard part.
From the very first project I would pick one real person, a friend, a family member, a stranger on Reddit, and solve one specific pain for them.
Then I would sit next to them (or screen-share) and watch them try to use it.
No hints.
Just notes.
You learn more in one hour of watching a real human struggle with your UI than in a month of reading documentation.
I Would Lock One Boring Stack and Go Deep
Shiny new frameworks drop every week.
Chasing them is a trap.
If I started today I would pick NestJS on the backend, TypeScript everywhere, PostgreSQL for data, and a simple React or Next.js frontend if I need one.
Then I would refuse to touch anything else for at least a few months.
I would master the debugger.
I would master the deployment pipeline.
I would master the common failure modes.
Depth in one stack makes you dangerous.
Breadth makes you a permanent beginner.
I Would Use AI to Learn Five Times Faster, But Never as a Crutch
In 2025 AI is everywhere.
Most beginners use it wrong: they ask it to write the whole thing and copy-paste without reading.
I would do the exact opposite.
My daily workflow would look like this:
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Try to solve the problem myself first, even if the code is terrible.
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Paste my terrible code into Cursor or Claude and ask: “What’s wrong with this?” “Why is this anti-pattern?” “Write five unit tests for this.” “Explain this concept like I’m ten years old.” “Show me three cleaner ways to do the same thing.” “Act like a senior engineer and review this pull request.”
I would argue with it when it’s wrong.
I would force it to explain every suggestion.
I would never accept code I don’t understand.
Used this way, AI isn’t cheating, it’s the best mentor money can’t buy.
Used the other way, it turns you into someone who can’t code when the internet is down.
That’s the entire difference between the path most people take and the path that actually works.
Do it this way in 2025 and in twelve months you’ll be shipping things that solve real problems while most beginners are still fighting syntax errors.
The tools have never been better.
The opportunity has never been bigger.
Don’t waste it repeating the same mistakes everyone else makes.
Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts.