If you code using GUIs or a mouse, go do the MIT “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education” course as soon as possible.

I have been coding off and on for more than 20 years now. I have had Linux desktop systems on the recommendation of and in order to better work with colleagues. I use the shell somewhat regularly. And yet, even 10 minutes into the first lecture, I have learned a few things. This missing information both helps me be more efficient and gives me a hierarchical understanding of why some things I have tried have worked well and others not so much.

One caveat is that passively listening to the lectures is not enough, even though it is easy to do. One complaint I have with the video is sometimes how quickly it moves on from the input text if I have a question about spacing, a capitalization, or the direction of a slash. Doing the examples and pausing the video until I’ve played with variations really helps me see how this plays out on my machine. I like this much more than some of the pre-loaded, artificial environments I have used to learn coding online. I can learn stuff that way, but it is hard to know where the problem is when it does not work in your environment.