Coding Learning Tips

Abstract

Everybody needs to learn to code. (No) Coding is the new literacy. If you can't code, you'll soon become obsolete. (Myth) Plus, coding is easy, so you really have no excuse. (Lie) These are all statements that are not true.In this paper I'm going to share a variety of practical techniques that have helped me learn to code because learning is a skill and if you want to be a software engineer, you'll need to learn new things all the time. Coding is hard workThe important thing to recognize when learning to code is that hard work is more valuable than talent. Talent is great if you have it. But programming is a skill very similar to playing a musical instrument or juggling. For most people, you totally suck at first then you feel like a genius when you code your first program then you realize you totally suck again, and this pattern goes on and on forever in an infinite loop.Learning is supposed to be painful. In fact, I believe that you need pain to grow. When learning a guitar, you need to put your fingertips through a lot of pain before you build calluses. In programming you'll have to bang your head against the keyboard a bunch of times until you figure out how to make these error messages go away. So, if you don't have talent be prepared to embrace the hard work.2. Learn patterns Now as you learn you might be wondering: "What language should I start with?". The truth is that it doesn't matter as long as you get really good at one of them. The thing about programming is that there's so much to learn you are never going to retain it all. Moreover, memorizing syntax doesn't really matter. The thing you really want to learn and retain are programming patterns. Essentially everything you do in programming is problem solving.So, in learning I would recommend trying out a few different languages and learn the one that feels more natural for you. For most people I think Python is ideal because it has a minimal syntax, is extremely popular and is also just a very useful language to know in general. But JavaScript, Go, Kotlin and Swift are also good languages to start with. But again, it's about becoming a problem solver not about memorizing syntax. And that begs the question: "How do I become a good problem solver?". Stop watching -start doingThe answer is -solve a bunch of problems, turn off YouTube, close the book and go write some code. Books and tutorials are great but they're utterly useless if