How eating raw potatoes made me a better dev

This is a bit embarrassing to share, but honestly, it's been helping me so much that I thought it might help someone else too.

A while back, I stumbled upon an article discussing the benefits of certain foods on brain function. Among them was the raw potato, for its complex carbohydrates and B vitamins which are said to support brain health.

I didn't think much of it at first. But one morning, I was stuck on a tough piece of code and this article popped into my mind, so I thought why not give it a try? I went after a raw potato and took a bite, and although it didn't taste great, I did feel a bit more alert. It might have been a coincidence, but I managed to tackle that bug not long after.

It wasn’t instant, but over the next few hours, I felt like my focus was sharper.

As the days went on, I noticed that whenever I needed to put in extra hours or work late, munching on a raw potato seemed to help keep my mind sharp. It felt like I was getting through my work a lot faster, even when I was tired. I could do the same amount of work in 4 hours that used to take me a whole day to finish, just keeping the potato right beside me.

So here I am, sharing this peculiar tip, and although many of you might find it odd, it's been helping out my coding routine a lot.

Storytime

But wait, you weren't actually believing that, were you? Before you go crazy munching on raw potatoes, let me explain the real purpose of this article.

The carrot myth

Let's roll back to the heart of World War II. The British had come up with a new kind of onboard radar that let their pilots take down German planes at night. But they didn’t want the Germans to know about this tech, but the sudden ability of the British pilots to target enemies in the dark started raising eyebrows and questions, so they came up with a story.

They said their pilots had improved their night vision by eating tons of carrots. It was a clever story, simple yet effective. The fake story spread and kept the real secret tech of the British hidden from the Germans, who started consuming lots of carrots (LOL).

Tech miracle tonics

Next time you come across a 'miracle' tonic promising to turn your coding world around, take a step back, and think: is this a carrot? It’s easy to get caught up in the promise of a quick fix, but it’s usually not that simple. The tech world is full of shiny new things and chasing them without a solid base can get you running in circles.

There’s no shortcut to becoming a better programmer. It’s all about understanding the basics, practicing a LOT, and learning from your mistakes.

When you spend time getting to know a language or a tool well, understanding how it works and what makes it work, you’re building a strong base. After that, learning new languages and tools becomes much quicker cause they are mostly based on the same principles.

So before you jump onto the next big thing, take a step back, and make sure you’ve got the basics down.

Remember: learning new things takes a lot of time and hard work.

... and also:

P.S.: If you come across this post, please leave a comment like 'great advice' or 'Wow, I didn't believe it at first, but it works,' to keep the ball rolling.

Inspired by the article "The Carrot Problem" and this video by Filipe Deschamps.