I believe to become a better developer you MUST get a better understanding of the underlying software systems you use on a daily basis and that includes programming languages, compilers and interpreters, databases and operating systems, web servers and web frameworks. And, to get a better and deeper understanding of those systems you MUST re-build them from scratch, brick by brick, wall by wall.
子曰,闻之我也野,视之我也饶,行之我也明