I am in a similar situation to the author of this article: learning to program after having having tried and given up ages ago. I believe the problem lies in tr

I am in a similar situation to the author of this article: learning to program after having having tried and given up ages ago. I believe the problem lies in trying to learn a complex language from the bottom up. In the OP's words: "Recently I took on the enormous task of learning Objective-C from the bottom up and I was struck by something I couldn’t shake: this is too hard." I believe one must consider the top-down approach: figure out what you want to do accomplish first, paint the solution in broad strokes, then fill in the details. Hal Abelson touched on this in a recent interview: "there also really are people who like to understand stuff bottom-up. It’s not to my taste. To my taste the most important thing is the idea that you build on abstraction." http://www.codequarterly.com/2011/hal-abelson/ http://www.codequarterly.com/2011/hal-abelson/. Get over your discomfort not knowing every detail before the fact, consider what the solution to your task might be and try it. For a non computer example: you meet a French girl who you want to get to know her better. You could drown yourself in learning the intricacies of French grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etc.. or you could muster your courage and engage in simple dialogue of the 'me- Tarzan you- Jane' type. Might work and you could fill in the details later.