"I thought building a project meant just writing code. Turns out, it’s also about debugging your mindset."
— Gokaram Dinesh Goud
Introduction
As a developer who's worked across real-world projects, I've come to realize that coding is only one part of the journey — and often, it's not even the hardest part. When I started building a backend tool to analyze technical debt in GitHub repositories, I wasn’t just refining my stack — I was evolving my mindset.
This blog isn’t a deep dive into FastAPI, Radon, or Pylint. Instead, it’s about the 5 critical lessons I learned through hands-on development — lessons that I believe can resonate with any engineer striving to build not just code, but quality, clarity, and growth into their work.
1. Documentation Is Not Optional
Initially, I didn’t bother documenting functions or writing clear README files. After all, I understood my own code, right?
Wrong.
A week later, I couldn’t remember what half the flags in my script meant. Worse, when trying to explain the project to a mentor, I realized how vague and disorganized my structure was. That’s when I learned:
"If your future self or another dev can’t use your project without asking questions, it’s not finished."
2. Google Is My Real Debugging Partner
Some of my best code didn’t come from books or tutorials — it came from error messages and Stack Overflow rabbit holes.
While integrating Radon and Flake8, I kept getting weird encoding issues and subprocess errors. I didn’t panic — I Googled, failed, retried, learned. And slowly, I became better at reading error messages, not just reacting to them.
If you’re a fresher reading this:
"Learning to search smartly is more powerful than memorizing syntax."
3. A Working Feature Isn’t Always a Good Feature
I was proud the day my /analyze endpoint returned a JSON with all metrics.
But later, I realized it was slow, lacked proper error handling, and crashed on large repos. That’s when I learned about code quality, optimization, and catching edge cases.
Just because something “works” doesn’t mean it’s done.
"Good code works. Great code survives."
4. User Experience Matters — Even If You’re the Only User
Since I was building a CLI + API tool, I didn’t think much about design. But as I started testing it repeatedly, I got frustrated by my own confusing command flags and unclear responses.
So I refactored — clearer logs, default behavior, better error messages. That made a huge difference in how confident I felt using and showing the tool.
Lesson?
"If a tool feels confusing to use, it probably needs better UX — not just better docs."
5. I’m Not Just Building Projects — I’m Building Myself
Each bug, each crash, each late-night refactor taught me more about how I think, not just how I code.
This project showed me that software development isn’t just logic — it’s patience, communication, iteration, and reflection.
"Building real projects isn’t about showing off. It’s about showing up."
✅ Final Thoughts
I started this project hoping to learn Python and APIs better. But I walked away with discipline, debugging grit, and a mindset that sees mistakes as fuel.
If you’re an aspiring developer or fresher like me, here’s my message:
"Don’t wait to be perfect to start. Start something imperfect — and let the journey make you better."
🔗 Project GitHub Link
📂 GitHub – Technical Debt Analyzer
🧠 Built using: FastAPI, Radon, Pylint, Flake8, GitHub API
💬 Thanks for reading!
I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or experiences with your first real-world project. Drop a comment or connect with me on LinkedIn.
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