Merge pull request #2 from brettlangdon/draft/code.every.day

Add write code every day article

contents/writing/about/write-code-every-day/index.md

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+---
+title: Write code every day
+author: Brett Langdon
+date: 2015-07-02
+template: article.jade
+---
+
+Just like a poet or an athlete practicing code every day will only make you better.
+
+---
+
+Lately I have been trying to get into blogging more and any article I read always says, "you need to write every day".
+It doesn't matter if what I write down gets published, but forming the habit of trying to write something every day
+is what counts. The more I write the easier it will become, the more natural it will feel and the better I will get at it.
+
+This really isn't just true of writing or blogging, it is something that can be said of anything at all. Riding a bike,
+playing basketball, reading, cooking or absolutely anything at all. The more you do it, the easier it will become and
+the better you will get.
+
+As the title of the post will allude you to, this is also true of programming. If you want to be really good at programming
+you have to write code every day. The more code you write the easier it'll be to write and the better you will be at programming.
+Just like any other task I've listed in this article, trying to write code every day, even if you are used to it, can be really
+hard to do and a really hard habit to keep.
+
+"What should I write?" The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone, but it is the hurdle which
+you must first overcome to work your way towards writing code every day. Usually people write code to solve problems
+that they have, but not everyone has problems to solve. There is usually a chicken and the egg problem. You need to
+write code to have coding problems, and you need to have coding problems to have something to write. So, where should
+you start?
+
+For myself, one of the things I like doing is to rewrite things that already exist. Sometimes it can be hard to come up with a
+new and different idea or even a new approach to an existing idea. However, there are millions of existing projects out
+there to copy. The idea I go for is to try and replicate the overall goal of the project, but in my own way. That might
+mean writing it in a different language, or changing the API for it or just taking some wacky new approach to solving the same issue.
+
+More times than not the above exercise leads me to a problem that I then can go off and solve. For example, a few weeks ago
+I sat down and decided I wanted to write a web server in `go` (think `nginx`/`apache`). I knew going into the project I wanted
+a really nice and easy to use configuration file to define the settings. So, I did what most people do these days I and
+used `json`, but that didn't really feel right to me. I then tried `yaml`, but yet again didn't feel like what I wanted. I
+probably could have used `ini` format and made custom rules for the keys and values, but again, this is hacky. This spawned
+a new project in order to solve the problem I was having and ended up being [forge](https://github.com/brettlangdon/forge),
+which is a hand coded configuration file syntax and parser for `go` which ended up being a neat mix between `json` and `nginx`
+configuration file syntax.
+
+Anywho, enough of me trying to self promote projects. The main point is that by trying to replicate something that
+already exists, without really trying to do anything new, I came up with an idea which spawned another project and
+for at least a week (and continuing now) gave me a reason to write code every day. Not only did I write something
+useful that I can now use in any future project of mine, I also learned something I did not know before. I learned
+how to hand code a syntax parser in `go`.
+
+Ultimately, try to take "coding every day" not as a challenge to write something useful every day, but to learn
+something new every day. Learn part of a new language, a new framework, learn how to take something apart or put
+it back together. Write code every day and learn something new every day. The more you do this, the more you will
+learn and the better you will become.
+
+Go forth and happy coding. :)