Contribute to open-source projects as a bridge from beginner to intermediate. Collaborate with the developers of the project and attend meetups to collaborate with other developers in person.
Don’t let anything get in the way of that initial motivation to learn programming and just build something. Sometimes you block yourself by having too much focus on reading books or resources first. Other times beginners will try to find the perfect first language. Your first language doesn’t matter. What matters is learning to program well. Just start coding.
"Learning programming languages is NOT learning how to program. Focus on programming techniques, problem solving, and analytical skills, not on learning as many languages as you can."
Learn multiple programming paradigms such as object-oriented programming, functional programming, reflective programming, etc. Believe it or not, your programming in one paradigm will improve after studying an alternative paradigm.
"Wherever possible, always choose the simpler programming language. More complex languages increase the cognitive load on your brain. Simpler languages do not necessarily give up anything in terms of power or expressiveness."
Beginners learn just enough of their tools to get by. To become an intermediate or expert developer, you need to know your tools cold. Learn all of the features, menus, and context menus. Learn to use them without a mouse by memorizing keyboard shortcuts. Find every “tips and tricks” article available.
Learn your stack on the deepest levels before you decide to reinvent the wheel. Peter Nixey gives a few good examples: “If you are a Ruby developer take time to learn the language's incredible range of methods. If you are a Node developer, take time to understand the architecture, the methods, and the mindset of Node. If you are an Angular developer go right up to the rock-face and understand the logic behind of the incredible architecture the core team is forging there right now. Ask before you invent.”
The same goes for the languages you work in. Learn the most important libraries for your use cases. The more libraries you’re aware of, the less likely you are to try reinventing the wheel.
Whenever you can, use programming languages that will eliminate entire classes of run-time errors. To do that, look for languages with features like strong typing, static typing, managed memory, and/or immutable data.
“Frameworks, libraries, languages, never mind if you can’t understand what you find under the hood on your first attempt. You can always put them aside and return to them later, just see to it that you can take them apart and have a look. All the rules you have to follow when you first learn were invented by someone, you can make them yours to reinvent with some persistence. Steer clear of tools that put barriers in the way of this activity, those make you depend on them in the wrong way.”