John Hicks

Realizing you didn't push once at hour 10 of a coding session is the dev version of forgetting to save in Photoshop when you see the wheel. Except now you're 5 versions ahead of your last working build. And you just sit there...Paralyzed #GitHub #SoftwareEngineering #Devlife #ProgrammerProblems #Buildinpublic #Photoshop

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Since transitioning into tech, I’ve had several #juniordevelopers reach out to me for advice. Over the weekend, I spoke with a junior developer who was stuck in analysis paralysis. He wasn’t sure which programming language he should learn. As someone who recently made the transition myself, my response was simple: “What have you built so far?” “Nothing,” he said. “I don’t know which language is in demand enough.” This is a very common issue, especially among upcoming developers. I’ve been told I have a knack for teaching—something my friend Isaac Babeeyo once pointed out. During our conversation, I asked the junior developer a question: “If you own a wooden chair, do you care which hammer was used to make it?” He said no. That example helped him grasp the point. More important than the tools is the act of building itself. You can only learn that a mallet isn’t good for hammering nails after you start building a chair. You can’t stay stuck choosing a hammer when you haven’t even started building. My Advice is simple #JustStart #juststart

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I’ve really enjoyed following this series and look forward to seeing what’s next from Banyan Labs. Stories like Ashley Brooks’ are a powerful reminder of what persistence and belief can lead to. Her journey- from overcoming challenges to leading development on UpCurve, is both inspiring and a testament to the impact of not giving up. “Progress is a new error” is such a meaningful perspective, especially for anyone navigating growth in tech or beyond. If you’re interested in stories like this and the work being built, I highly recommend following Banyan Labs to stay connected.

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🚀 Diving into C# WinForms + MS SQL Server! Just spent some time connecting a C# WinForms app to an MS SQL Server database — and honestly, it feels awesome to see real data flow from UI to database! 😎 Here’s what I learned: 🔗 SqlConnection Think of it as opening a “door” to your database. It tells your app where the database is and how to connect. ✍️ INSERT (Save Data) Using SqlCommand you can insert form values directly into your table. Great for saving student info, registrations, or any form data. 📥 SELECT (Fetch Data) SqlDataReader lets you read data row-by-row and show it in a DataGridView. Perfect for displaying all records instantly on the UI. 📦 Database Structure (Table: std) The SQL table acts like a structured container: std  ├── name  ├── fname  ├── email  ├── surname  ├── gender  ├── degree_name  ├── field_name  ├── batch  └── contact This layout makes it super easy to insert data from textboxes and load it back into the grid. 💡 Learning how C#, SQL Server, and WinForms talk to each other really shows how backend + UI come together to build functional desktop apps. ⚡ hashtags hashtag#CSharp hashtag#WinForms hashtag#SQLServer hashtag#DatabaseDevelopment hashtag#DotNet hashtag#ProgrammingJourney hashtag#LearnByDoing hashtag#FullStackDev hashtag#CodingLife

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Quick tip for anyone going through tech interviews: Never, and I mean never, run random npm install scripts or npm run dev commands from company repositories when completing technical tasks. For example, something like this: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gnievza6 Doing so could give unintended access to suspicious APIs, such as: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gvYcUNnt …which could, in fact, be malware. If a company insists that you run some random repository on your machine, you can simply refuse, or at the very least, scan such repositories first using your CLI AI agent before running anything. --- More details on my blog: https://lnkd.in/gj3ESzRc

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