HACKER Q&A
📣 newbrookie

Failing to learn to code for 4 years, looking for advice


Hello HN,

I have tried hard but got overwhelmed. Trying to learn to code for the past 4 years but can't stick to one topic and its hard

What strategy should I follow? My target is to build a product


  👤 JPLeRouzic Accepted Answer ✓
Hi,

If your target is to build a product, do not try to build it yourself: Get freelancers. As for yourself focus on product marketing, product specification, procurement, production management, customer relation, etc.

If your target is to learn how to code, then choose a simple language, use simple tools, concentrate on basic topics, try small examples.

Good luck!


👤 MilnerRoute
I think you know more than you think you do. Some random advice:

There is a lot to learn. One of the wisest coders I know told me to try to narrow my focus. (There's no way anyone ever learns everything about everything -- so just pick one language/project realm that you see has some long-term interest/potential for you, and be proud of that.) The advice they always give you is to learn one language really well, because that will make it easier to know what to look for later in your career when you move to another language.

Someone once told me: just code. Just start coding up things. Fun things; things you want to do, so you'll do a lot of them. Besides being good practice, along the way you can upload it to your GitHub repository, so you'll eventually have a body of code that you've written yourself.

One thing I wish I'd done more of: collaborate, maybe on a large project. You can find them on GitHub. This will get you reading other people's code, which is always a good practice on its own. (In the last few years there's now Twitch channels where people talk about their code, but you need to be reading the code too.) Just learning the dynamics of a coding project is helpful for employment.

Live people really de-mystify coding - and also help you stay focused. I found a study group for CS50 (which I was taking online), and that really helped me feel like I wasn't the only newbie, and kept me going. Harvard/EdX's CS50 was a terrific online class, by the way -- "challenging but do-able," as they say. I learned a ton of things about the programming world, but the best thing was it wasn't too easy, so I was really pumped about the things I ended up doing, and it gave me the thing I needed most: confidence.

Maybe the most important advice: if you can actually get involved in professional programming, anywhere, then that will get you doing it every day, and a lot of the rest of your learning will take care of itself. Volunteering for an open source project is a good step to take if you can't get someone to pay you to do it. (If you're not comfortable about your coding, they also need documentation -- which still gets you reading code and thinking about code...)

Stay positive. Stay healthy -- and get some exercise. Help others. These things really help with your mindset, and help make good things happen...