Introduction¶
Quote
"The secret to good documentation is to write it while you're writing the code. You are your first audience. Explain what you're doing to yourself. Future you will thank you!" Victoria Drake in How to Write Good Documentation
Since programming is difficult, it is common to become stuck and find that you need help to solve your current technical challenge. Even though getting stuck on a programming problem can be frustrating, the good news is that there are significant number of great resources that can help you to solve technical problems. In addition to sites like Stack Overflow, there are many informative blog posts written by experts who took to heart Victoria Drake's reminder that "[t]he secret to good documentation is to write it while you're writing the code. You are your first audience. Explain what you're doing to yourself." This means that the community of proactive programmers can, as a "second audience", benefit from the wide variety of technical posts on personal and company blogs. Here is an exciting thought to consider: after investing the time to become a proactive programmer you will have the knowledge and skills needed to deploy your own web site featuring articles in which you share what you learned when you overcame a tricky technical challenge!
The remainder of this section overviews a few of the external communities offering resources that can help a proactive programmer grow in their technical and professional skills. Please bear in mind that many of these communities provide both technical and professional development resources! It is also worth noting that the lists in the following sections are only starting points for your technical and professional growth. If you have some ideas for improving these lists of resources you can share them in the GitHub Issue Tracker or in the GitHub Discussions Forum!