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I think about this question a lot, because although I learned to program after college, I had a false start during one of my college summers. I tried to follow

by otras 4y ago

I think about this question a lot, because although I learned to program after college, I had a false start during one of my college summers. I tried to follow the intro JavaScript section of Codecademy (this would have been ~2011) on my own, and I fell off the learning wagon. In retrospect, I think the main problem was motivation, in multiple ways. It was during a period of "I don't really know what to do, so maybe I'll try to learn to program, or maybe learn a little Korean, or what if I got into...", where I was exploring broadly, but without clear goals or much practice learning on my own. At the time, I didn't even know what I wanted to major in! Because there wasn't much real interest backing the initial exploration, I backed out when I ran into some resistance and it required a little more effort, and I instead moved on to the next thing (spoiler alert: I also didn't learn Korean). I wasn't very good at putting in the work it takes to learn hard things, and I hadn't had a lot of practice studying, though I somehow passed my freshman year classes without good study skills. I think that starting with the broad, amorphous goal of "learn to program" didn't include tangible goals that I think would have helped motivate 19-year old me, like building an actual website, writing a useful app, or making a basic game. As another comment says, multiplying numbers for the sake of multiplying numbers wasn’t enough. Coupled with the aversion to putting in the work, I don't think there was enough to motivate me to keep going. When people ask me about learning to code, I try to think of ways that they can leverage their interests — maybe if you love cooking, you can learn enough to build a very basic cooking app. You'll run into some tough spots, and having that inspiration can help you get through them, hopefully until you're well practiced in getting through those tough spots. Better yet, work through it with other people and get through them together. When learning to program later, a large part of the motivation was to make a career shift, and it was much easier to direct my energy and focus, aided by a little more maturity and practice learning as well. There was nothing quite like fielding customer support calls to help motivate me to study after work, and I stuck with it much better. The joke is truly on me, because I now really enjoy both programming and learning.

whartung 4y ago
> In retrospect, I think the main problem was motivation, I think this is key, as it's fundamental to learning anything. Some folks "learn to learn", and that's all well and good. Most folks, however, learn to do. They have some task they want done, so they learn what they need to in order to do that task. We can exempt folks taking courses solely to meet a degree requirement, but that's also a goal oriented learning experience. "Need to pass to graduate. Need high grade for GPA, but that doesn't mean I actually care to learn Psychology 101." Aimless learning is rarely rewarding. While I was fascinated at a general level with computers, once I learned the basics, pretty much everything else was self-taught with some goal in mind. With me, I was always writing crummy little games. Games present all sorts of interesting implementation problems. And there's no better way to learn than to write something really badly! My friend and I in college were trying to do our own Roguelike, and went through two platforms, and four languages, rewriting and standing on the shoulders of, well, not giants, but the ruined wasteland of our previous attempts each time. Learned a lot. Also, there's nothing wrong with someone learning something to then find out they don't like it. Computers are awful, horrible creations and demand a certain mindset to wrangle, and they are not for everyone to be sure.
- sjcoles 4y ago
  > My friend and I in college were trying to do our own Roguelike, and went through two platforms, and four languages, rewriting and standing on the shoulders of, well, not giants, but the ruined wasteland of our previous attempts each time. Learned a lot. The first time you code yourself into a corner is an interesting experience. It can be frustrating but it's almost always lead me to big realizations about larger concepts around/about how to design a program.

by otras 4y ago

whartung 4y ago

> In retrospect, I think the main problem was motivation, I think this is key, as it's fundamental to learning anything. Some folks "learn to learn", and that's all well and good. Most folks, however, learn to do. They have some task they want done, so they learn what they need to in order to do that task. We can exempt folks taking courses solely to meet a degree requirement, but that's also a goal oriented learning experience. "Need to pass to graduate. Need high grade for GPA, but that doesn't mean I actually care to learn Psychology 101." Aimless learning is rarely rewarding. While I was fascinated at a general level with computers, once I learned the basics, pretty much everything else was self-taught with some goal in mind. With me, I was always writing crummy little games. Games present all sorts of interesting implementation problems. And there's no better way to learn than to write something really badly! My friend and I in college were trying to do our own Roguelike, and went through two platforms, and four languages, rewriting and standing on the shoulders of, well, not giants, but the ruined wasteland of our previous attempts each time. Learned a lot. Also, there's nothing wrong with someone learning something to then find out they don't like it. Computers are awful, horrible creations and demand a certain mindset to wrangle, and they are not for everyone to be sure.

sjcoles 4y ago
> My friend and I in college were trying to do our own Roguelike, and went through two platforms, and four languages, rewriting and standing on the shoulders of, well, not giants, but the ruined wasteland of our previous attempts each time. Learned a lot. The first time you code yourself into a corner is an interesting experience. It can be frustrating but it's almost always lead me to big realizations about larger concepts around/about how to design a program.