It took me about 5 minutes to get started writing code. For some people programming can make sense, for others it's just a craft that's in the hands. When I wa

It took me about 5 minutes to get started writing code. For some people programming can make sense, for others it's just a craft that's in the hands. When I was at the university lots of people struggled with "understanding" programming and they wrote little code, trying to more to come to terms with what programming is rather than trying to do it. The people that succeeded in learning to program wrote lots of code even though it was hard to write the code and to understand. Some of the people that didn't never entered their programs into computers and just ran the code by hand on a piece of paper (to what practical use is that?). For me programming is in the hands. When I learn a new programming language it's total chaos for 1-2 weeks and then the new regime settles and I can understand what I have been doing. After half a year of being exposed to a new programming language even more of the teachings settle and I can begin understanding more, but programming it's a practical art. I suppose it can be different if you are more mathematically minded than I am. I suggest doing ALL the exercises in a programming book - as fast as you can without trying to really understand what is going on behind the scenes. The secret is that you don't have to really understand what the hell is going on behind the scenes, you just have to know enough to stay out of trouble and that knowledge comes from experience. In the beginning of a programming career it'll be impossible to guess what weird bugs might occur so just code and see what happens. In short, you have to have a lot of practical knowledge of programming to support your theoretical knowledge, otherwise you cannot do anything with either. A chicken and egg situation, so it's best just to jump into the deep waters and try to swim to the surface.