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Ask HN: What's the best way to become a 10x full-stack engineer in 2025?

1 points by admingirl ↗ HN
I’m a junior in college studying math, physics, and CS. My goal is to become a world-class full-stack engineer who can build real-time systems, intelligent apps, and scalable infrastructure from scratch.

I’m currently working with React, Node.js, Vite, Python, PyTorch, Gymnasium, and exploring Rust for backend work. I want to go beyond tutorial land and learn how the best engineers think and build.

What are the best projects, open-source repos, books, systems to study, or skills to master to reach the top 1% of engineers in 1 year?

Bonus: What should I avoid wasting time on?

9 comments

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billy99k
"I’m a junior in college studying math, physics, and CS. My goal is to become a world-class full-stack engineer who can build real-time systems, intelligent apps, and scalable infrastructure from scratch."

The systems like you describe aren't built by 1 person and for good reason. They are built by teams.

"What are the best projects, open-source repos, books, systems to study, or skills to master to reach the top 1% of engineers in 1 year?"

While a good goal to have, I think you should be focusing on soft skills (talking to people, communicating, translating business needs to code/plans) in addition to your engineering skills.

All of the best engineers that I know have all of these skills and even a passable amount will put you ahead of most engineers.

minimaxir
> The systems like you describe aren't built by 1 person and for good reason. They are built by teams.

And to proactively address the obvious counterargument, the influencers on LinkedIn/X who are supersuccessful solo developers are a) survivorship bias and/or b) tend to overexaggerate.

admingirl
Yes, thank you for calling this out. It’s so easy to fall into the “solo genius” myth. I’m aiming for range, not virality. I'd rather build things that last than chase a highlight reel. Survivorship bias is real.
admingirl
You’re totally right, systems at scale aren’t solo efforts. I think my goal is to be the kind of engineer who can prototype ambitious ideas from scratch, understand all the layers, and be dangerous across the stack. Also really appreciate the reminder about soft skills. I'm starting to realize that being able to talk to people and translate messy needs into clean systems might be more rare than knowing five frameworks.
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p_ing
Learn to walk before you run and be humble. Have your goals, but I would assume you're in your late teens or early 20s. Your goals may not align to Real Life, and that's OK.

Don't waste time on kicking yourself for not being some "superstar" developer. There are a lot of not-superstar developers who make a huge difference in computing.

Most of the NT kernel team is unknown, by and large. But they had an oversized impact to the computing world. Same goes to Linux kernel devs.

admingirl
I’m in my early twenties, still early. I know the goals sound ambitious, but I’m serious about them and moving fast. Appreciate the reminder, most people who really move the needle aren’t loud about it. They’re just sharp and consistent.
overu589
There is this thing we might refer to as “the burn.” You know, like “burn your ass to get it done.” Only for knowledge workers, it is an ember in the mind that goes and goes and goes and goes.

Learn to fan that flame without the burn out.

That is the secret of the way.

Burn your ass until your mind incinerates self doubt. You will learn it is faster to try some things than wonder if they might work.

Burn your ass until those reasons why not are forgotten, or are repulsive.

Burn your ass until all of those things others say cannot be done without a team are done out of boredom waiting for others to get on the same page.

There is no book, only determination, and outcome.

Some day you will realize everyone else is 90% lazy and you will adjust your work life balance in accordance.

admingirl
This is fire. I know exactly what you mean by “the burn”, that restless energy in your chest that makes you have to figure it out, even at 2am. I’ve felt it. Still learning how to stay lit without burning out, but this spoke to me. Thank you.