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Welcome to this week’s Sloth Bytes. I hope you had a great week.

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The 80/20 Rule of Learning Programming

A lot of you have started another year of school! I wanted to give some advice.

When I first started getting serious about programming, I thought I had to know everything.

Every language. Every framework. Every buzzword I saw on online.

Python, React, Redux, GraphQL, Apollo, Docker, Kubernetes, MongoDB, SQL, etc.

Looking back, I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of the insane job descriptions where they expect you to know everything (they don’t btw.)

It felt like every concept I learned, 5 more would show up. And honestly? It was paralyzing.

I always had those moments:

The more you know the more you realize you don't know.

The 80/20 Shift

Here’s the thing: you don’t need to know everything to become a good developer.

In fact I believe 20% of the information will give you 80% of the results. 

That’s my variation of the Pareto Principle for programming, and once I started applying that rule, it saved me from burning out.

The mistake I made early on was thinking “real developers” had everything memorized. Every command, every library, every framework, but that’s not how it works.

Real developers get really good at the fundamentals and then they lean on resources when they need the rest.

My 20%

When I look back, the stuff that actually made me better wasn’t things like the number of languages I knew. It was a handful of fundamentals.

That’s because I kept bumping into them no matter what language I used or project I built:

• Control flow: loops, if statements, and functions.

• Data structures: lists/arrays and dictionaries/maps.

• Debugging: slowing down long enough to actually read error messages.

• Googling effectively: “python split string example” beats “python break words.”

• Git basics: clone, add, commit, push. Just enough to not lose my work.

That’s it. Once I stopped chasing every shiny new thing and mastered these, everything else became way easier.

That’s because everything is based on those fundamentals.

The Checklist I Wish I Had

If I could travel back in time and hand beginner-me a sticky note, it would say:

• Get comfortable with programming fundamentals (variables, loops, functions, etc)

• Play with a lists/arrays and a dictionary/map. Add, remove, update stuff

• Learn to debug some errors without immediately pasting it into Google or ChatGPT

• Push every project to GitHub (even if it’s small or dumb)

• Look at the job you want, look at the technologies, and build projects with them.

That’s it.

Honestly If you nail this, you’re already ahead of 80% of people who are in college.

I’m not joking. The bar is that low (thanks AI.)

An Important Nuance

Now don’t get me wrong. If your job or the job you want requires a certain framework, you’ll eventually need to learn it.

If you’re interviewing for a React role, you’ll need to know React. If you’re a data engineer, you’ll need SQL.

That’s non-negotiable.

But here’s the mistake: thinking you need to know everything all at once. 

You don’t.

And you definitely don’t need to memorize everything.

Memorization is nice, sure. But programming isn’t a trivia contest. It’s problem solving.

You’ll always have Google. You’ll always have docs. You’ll always have Stack Overflow, and now you’ll always have AI.

The skill that actually matters is this: knowing how to find and apply the right solution when you need it.

Even now, with years of coding, here are things I still Google almost weekly:

• “git branches”

• “python dictionaries”

• “nextjs server actions”

• “how to write a docker compose file”

• “css flex box”

Does that make me a bad programmer? Nope (well maybe?)

But it does make me a real one.

My 80/20 rule of programming isn’t just about efficiency or to be the best.

It’s about giving yourself permission not to know everything.

It allows me to be more consistent and not burnout. I know I’ll get there eventually.

“Genius developers” aren’t walking encyclopedias.

They just doubled down on the 20% that matters most and trusted themselves to figure out the rest when the time came.

So if you’re overwhelmed or freaking out over how much you have to learn, step back.

Focus on the basics. Build small things. Let the rest come when it actually matters.

Master the 20%, and the other 80% will start feeling like manageable hills you can climb one at a time.

Thanks to everyone who submitted!

grcc492, OneDollarCat, NeoScripter, vilebile17, Eklund2012, andregarcia0412, bakzkndd, ElGonan (I love you too), Rilaey, gregoirevaillant, gcavelier, AspenTheRoyal, RISHI-GAPPIBHAI, AmoghP117, Suji-droid, CookieProgramm, Fireboy086, RelyingEarth87, hollybancroft, SDKwapis, amirsamgoharpay, SabhyaAggarwal, Dennis-Bauer, and rashmiam12.

Wow that’s a lot of people… I can’t have that. Here’s a harder challenge:

Excel Sheet Column Title

Given a positive integer, return its corresponding column title displayed in Excel sheets.

For example:

1 -> A
2 -> B
3 -> C
...
26 -> Z
27 -> AA
28 -> AB
...

Examples

convert_to_title(1)
output = "A"

convert_to_title(18)
output = "R"

convert_to_title(28)
output = "AB"

convert_to_title(52)
output = "AZ"

convert_to_title(701)
output = "ZY"
convert_to_title(229704)
output = "MATT"
convert_to_title(209380622941)
output = "ZATOICHI"

How To Submit Answers

Reply with

• A link to your solution (github, twitter, personal blog, portfolio, replit, etc)

• or if you’re on the web version leave a comment!

• If you want to be mentioned here, I’d prefer if you sent a GitHub link or Replit!

That’s all from me!

Have a great week, be safe, make good choices, and have fun coding.

If I made a mistake or you have any questions, feel free to comment below or reply to the email!

See you all next week.

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