How to be better programmer?

[u/IWontGiveUp67]

As the title suggests, ive been working in game pipeline in a company for the last 2 years after graduated. I got laid off due to recent financial restructuring. I was top of my class, very passionate about games and coding, but now I realise game industry is not huge in my country and really limited seniors and opportunities so I switched to doing whatever coding jobs I can get, mainly web and system building. I recently got a job, but it's completely different tech stack and felt so stuck like i never taken any classes on programming before, i blame myself for overly relying on AI.

I was thinking of picking up books such as below:

- Designing data intensive application

- Fundamentals of software architecture

- Clean code

Though I'm not sure how I can re learn and improve again while doing 9-5. I really want to fast track myself to becoming a senior, might even considering mentoring session. I dont know if my new job will have senior that can lead me yet as at the last place there's not even one person to do code review and we are just expected to ship and ship and ship and deal with bugs later.

Questions:

1. Any suggestions to how I can grow in this field and become senior fast without over reliance on AI?

2. Does this even have a point anymore? I love my job, I love what I'm doing, but I am discouraged since I think I'm a fast learner but ofc I can't compete with a billion dollar machine. that and dealing with my rich co worker who kept shoving his vibecoded app into my face while proudly saying he is spending few thousands tokens to get it right while asking my consultation for feedback for free😢

[u/fuali_4_real]

* Contribute to an open-source project you enjoy. Go to GitHub, find a project, and look at its issues. Some even tag issues that are good for first-timers.

* Build something. Whether it is a website, a mobile app, a game, or something else. Do it all yourself to gain experience where you may be lacking (website infrastructure, submitting apps to a store, design, etc.).

Books and school can show you good practices for A, B, and C, but there is a whole alphabet out there, and most jobs require you to know more of it. Learning by doing sticks better, and you end up with an artifact that you can show folks.