I have helped many people learn to code. I was teaching JS basics to a friend the other day who was interested, and he said something that I thought was partic

I have helped many people learn to code. I was teaching JS basics to a friend the other day who was interested, and he said something that I thought was particularly well-worded. When he stumbled across the idea of classes (as in OOP, that is), I said he should avoid them for now because it's too advanced and it would just make things confusing. I encouraged him to focus on basic functions and control flow. He demurred, insisting that we do something "actually interesting" and had me teach him how to create a class. He likened the motivation to learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu: > I don't want to spend hours practicing passing the guard, I want to learn to rip someone's fucking arm off. And having learned some BJJ myself, and having experienced that exact same desire and irritation, I couldn't help but sympathize. Passing the guard is a crucial part of BJJ, but it feels quite basic and uninteresting in the beginning, much like if statements and for loops. The point is, make sure your learner is working on something he finds interesting, like trying to put together a basic calculator app or anything concrete that he can relate to. Empty isolated exercises that aren't leading to building anything are detrimental to interest and motivation.