The Developer Roadmap: Building Skills That Compound

Lately, most of my time has gone into work for clients, the house, and helping my wife with her businesses. Real life, in other words.
Between all that, progress on my own projects has been slower, but not lost.

Because instead of chasing ten new tools or ideas, I’ve built a Developer Roadmap. A simple system to guide my learning and make every bit of progress compound.

Why I built it

For years, I’ve bounced between projects, tutorials, and ideas.
Every time I sat down to learn something, I had to decide what to focus on. That constant decision fatigue kills momentum.

This roadmap fixes that. It’s not a to-do list in essence but works more like a compass.
Whenever I get a block of time, I just open my roadmap, pick one of the items and start learning.

The principle: overlapping value

The biggest shift I made was to stop learning in silos.
Every skill I focus on now has to overlap across my different worlds: client work, game development, and the tools I want to build under Cybernetks.

Here’s how that looks in practice:

• Symfony: Deepen backend mastery with Messenger, Security, APIs, clean architecture and so on.
• React & TypeScript: Strengthen my front-end layer for both web apps and in-game tools.
• Godot: Grow as a creator, learning level design, scripting, and improving player experience.
• Clean Code & Design Patterns: The foundation for everything, regardless of language or framework.
• iOS Development (Later): Build polished, self-contained apps for extra income and experimentation.

These aren’t random topics. They all feed into each other, improving how I think, code, and create.

Real life still happens

I still spend days fixing the house, delivering packages, or helping with the family business.
That’s life. But now, when I finally sit down, I don’t waste time figuring out what to learn next. I just follow the map.

This approach makes slow weeks still meaningful.
Even if I only study for 30 minutes, it’s a step in the right direction and not sideways.

A note for other developers

If you ever feel stuck between tutorials, burned out from context-switching, or unsure what to learn next I can highly recommend to try and build your own roadmap.

Don’t overcomplicate it.
Focus on skills that overlap with your goals, and make every session build on the last.

Progress isn’t about speed; it’s about direction.
And a clear roadmap gives you both, even when life gets busy.

Catch you in the next log.