How to organize knowledge?

Question

IT education

Hello!

Faced some kind of dead end in the study of programming. Now I seem to be able to do something, but, probably, due to the fact that I am self-taught and comprehended most of everything in practice by trial and error, there is a feeling that some large layer of theoretical knowledge has been missed.

It seems that I understand all the elements separately, but nothing adds up to a single picture of the world, you start reading about one thing, but at some point it is intertwined with another, and then knowledge no longer reaches the required bar, and it turns out some kind of vicious circle .

I know that I'm asking a question not in the most understandable way, but maybe someone has come across a similar one? Maybe someone knows what to read so that everything is structured somehow in my head? Literature, maybe which one is suitable or video tutorials?
The assurance that with time this feeling will pass by itself is also good :)

Answer 1

there is a feeling that some large layer of theoretical knowledge has been missed

It's a wonderful feeling of "hunger" for knowledge.
I will recommend the practice: write (your) project while simultaneously reading the code of another “good” project. Write off, copy - understanding.
If you come across an unprecedented phenomenon, term, product, pattern - stop, google, figure it out. Ask.

Answer 2

Yes, we are all self-taught and missed the "heavenly briefing", as Richard Bach calls it.
The feeling of incomplete understanding marks the boundary between what you have really mastered and what you haven't yet. With the accumulation of experience, the border will expand, but will never disappear. You will feel comfortable and confident only in the task that you solve not for the first time.
Welcome to the profession ;)

Answer 3

Read some book that is considered authoritative in the area of ​​programming that you have chosen for yourself. For example, when I started writing in C#, I mindlessly copied examples from SO using List<T>. But at the same time, he didn’t even understand what it was, he also swore to himself “again these incomprehensible little corners, I wonder what they mean.” And then I read Albahari, oh, that's what it is, a generalized class, and it turns out that you can also write your own. How many wonderful discoveries we have ...
Go to an interview, at social security questions often pop up questions on which a copy-pasteur who writes seemingly working code, but without understanding, falls down, but a knowledgeable person does not. As a milder option, google questions for social security in your area, and, of course, look for answers to them.

Answer 4

Just start writing a big study project, and try to synthetically incorporate the theory you are learning into your project. This is the best solution in my experience.

Answer 5

As many have already written, start doing your project, you need experience in creating a complex system, not individual short tasks.
By the way, due to inexperience, you will make pieces of the application that have already been made for you in the form of libraries, frameworks, patterns. And this is good. If a person himself has realized the problem, then the tool will go extremely quickly and clearly. It is always easier to learn a tool than a technology.
When you finish the project, think about whether there are such voluminous places that you wrote yourself, where the solution is not tied specifically to your task at all, but is of a universal nature. If there are, then know that the tool (library, framework, etc.) that solves your problem has already been written a long time ago. If there is no such tool at all, then this is a bell that you have done (with a probability of ~ 100%) some kind of complete game and you need to carefully analyze your work.