The Most Important Skill Any Programmer Can Ever Have
By: Varun Joshi
Tags: Google, Developer, Programming, Tips, Software Development

It’s not React or Vue or even JavaScript, it’s something much simpler.

I’ve been a Software Developer for almost 3 years now, not counting 4 years of my CS major. It may not seem like a lot, but I’ve managed to understand that there is one skill that can take you far as a programmer.

Before I reveal to you the big secret, try taking a wild guess. Like I said before, it’s not a programming language. Heck, it’s not even related to computer science.

How about a hint: You do it at least once a day.

It’s Google. How to Google stuff is one of the best skills you can have as a programmer.

When I first started programming (I started with Android), I was embarrassed to Google every small function and wondered if I would ever be a good programmer. Every day I would try to memorise basic functions to get closer to my goal. The result? I spent precious time trying to memorise everything rather than just building something.

If you are learning how to code, trying to memorise everything is the biggest mistake you can make.

Coming back to the point of this story, you will be Googling stuff every day, even if you gather years of experience. So why not do it right?

Full disclosure: I still look up ‘How to get the date in Javascript’ every chance I get. I don’t believe I’ll ever get over it. 😅

Google the right thing & you’ll never be stuck on a problem again. Photo by icon0.com from Pexels

Let’s look at some tips that will help you master the art of searching on Google.

1. Copy-Paste

We live in a pretty competitive world. There are millions of programmers using a handful of software solutions around the world. Chances are, someone has already faced the problem you are facing and has spent enough time trying to solve it.

So the next time you face an error message, copy and paste it on Google. I am sure you will find some valuable insights about your error in the first 5 results.

I spent a lot of time last week (~8 hours) trying to fix a problem with Git. I copy-pasted the error to Google and instantly found the cause of my problem, but couldn’t find a solution. So I kept searching on Google, going deeper & deeper until I stumbled upon the solution! The next day, I wrote a Medium story about the error, so someone facing the same error might find my story and solve the error in minutes!

2. Search for exact words & phrases

Google has some neat ways we can find what we’re looking for. Often, if you run a generic query, Google will try to return everything it knows about the problem. While it’s nice of Google to be so forthcoming, all we really want is one right article.

Using quotation marks in your search phrase can help you look up exact words.

For example, if you were to run a Google search for some interview questions asked in their interviews, it will give you every single question ever asked. Phew, now that’s a lot of questions. But, if you’re looking at interview questions for a Data Scientist job at Google, looking up ‘google interview “Data Scientist”’ will help you find just the right results.

3. Excluding a word

Google can help you filter out results but what about times when you don’t know what you’re looking for, but you know what you are not looking for?

The minus sign (-) allows you to specify words that should not be included in your search results.

Let’s say you’re looking for a Linux Distribution, but you know you don’t want Ubuntu, Google can filter pages that mention Ubuntu if you use the following search:

4. Finding Related Words

This is the opposite of finding exact words or phrases. The ~ (tilde: similar to in math) operator helps you match synonyms. For example, if you were looking for budget laptops, searching for ~inexpensive laptops would match “inexpensive,” “cheap,” “affordable,” and “low cost”. This works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms. Also, make sure you put the ~ next to the word, with no spaces between the ~ and the word.

5. The Wildcard

This one is straight out of the regular expression handbook. Although I hate writing a regex, this wildcard character has helped me understand errors and solutions from people who have faced a similar error. This is especially useful when you have an error code in your search since not everyone may have gotten the same code. This trick will help you look at a broader set of results.

The search will get you all the error codes!

6. Search for a particular filetype

This is a really cool trick to search Google for a specific file type. An excellent use case is if you have a give a presentation on ‘The Power of Typography’ and you just remembered last minute. So you search Google for a presentation you can re-use (This may or may not have been a true story involving me).

A cool prank to play on your unsuspecting friends 😈

It’s really hard to imagine Google going down or just finding even a small bug in the Google Search. So imagine what happens when the search results look, well a bit askew 🤔.

So, here’s what you can do, find a friend and while in front of the computer, search for askew. The rest I leave up to you 😀

Something doesn’t feel right, does it?

That’s it for this story!

Did you know some of the tricks I mentioned above? Do you know some more? Please share them with me!

A note to new programmers

It’s all about that first project.

Don’t try to learn everything!

Don’t wait too long to start on your project, just do it!

Remember, you can’t learn to ride the bicycle by watching videos of other people doing it, you gotta get on the bike yourself! 🚲

Happy Coding! 😃