How you deal with the frustration associated with learning programming plays a huge role in how far you'll go. You can't read a book to learn how to press on when frustrated. The best engineers that I've ever worked with had an uncanny ability to motivate themselves through those intense moments of frustration.
Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#22Just do your own thing. I wrote a lot of PHP when I was learning 10 years ago. Because it was PHP everywhere and that's all I had in hands. Do I do a lot of PHP today? Nope, occasional hacks and quickies, that's it. But from there I went to actionscript, javascript, C#, Flex / WPF / Silverlight... Touched C, C++, Haskell, Python, Go... Heck I even have some Haxe on my computer. Whatever you have in hand, pick it up a…
> It's a computer, it can do anything. Period.
Anything? I assume you mean it can compute anything, right?
So you could write a computer program that determines whether two distinct programs do the same thing? Or whether a batch job will ever finish? Or whether you could substitute the variables in a equation with integers in order to satisfy it? Or a hundred other tasks that have been proven impossible?
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#23It's kinda funny, because I often think this way but in the opposite direction. How the hell does one build a socket anyways? (Yes I will go and google this now so save your lmgtfy links :))
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#24Just do your own thing. I wrote a lot of PHP when I was learning 10 years ago. Because it was PHP everywhere and that's all I had in hands. Do I do a lot of PHP today? Nope, occasional hacks and quickies, that's it. But from there I went to actionscript, javascript, C#, Flex / WPF / Silverlight... Touched C, C++, Haskell, Python, Go... Heck I even have some Haxe on my computer. Whatever you have in hand, pick it up a…
> It's a computer, it can do anything. Period. Anything? I assume you mean it can compute anything, right? So you could write a computer program that determines whether two distinct programs do the same thing? Or whether a batch job will ever finish? Or whether you could substitute the variables in a equation with integers in order to satisfy it? Or a hundred other tasks that have been proven impossible?
Of course it can't do anything. The computer just hasn't found the person to tell it how to do it yet.
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#25its simple:
try harder!
learning a language is usually much easier than learning to use a framework efficiently. it just takes time and a lot of motivation. so its completely normal that you get stuck.
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#26The best resource is building something you consider useful. Start small and make it a personal project. Don't even think about making money on it or else you will destroy the enjoyment of making it. It doesn't have be long term, in fact it is better if you don't plan on maintaining it but instead build it and evolve it with every iteration.
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#27Focus and diligence are probably the most important tools to succeed as a software engineer. Also, having lots of mental stamina is helpful. You read the tutorial, write code, get stuck, take a break, re-read the docs, write more code, repeat. Only way to do it...
Possibly collaborate with somebody? Some people work best alone, but pair programming or working with someone else can help you stay focussed, learn and teach with others, etc. Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#28How you deal with the frustration associated with learning programming plays a huge role in how far you'll go. You can't read a book to learn how to press on when frustrated. The best engineers that I've ever worked with had an uncanny ability to motivate themselves through those intense moments of frustration.
Marco Arment had a good quote about frustration:
"And there will certainly be hard parts: you’ll get frustrated, go to Google, find some guidance, bang against it for a while, then finally get it working and experience immense satisfaction for as long as you can go before hitting the next wall of frustration. Fortunately, as you get more experienced, you’ll hit those walls less frequently."
http://www.marco.org/2011/02/01/how-should-i-get-started-wit...
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#29I'm a mechanical engineer who taught myself to code and now I've written a full-blown web app. I'd recommend jumping right into Rails and building and breaking stuff, which is how I learned. On the plus side: -There's a TON of documentation, resources and help online. -It's really fast to get started, so you'll get quick wins. This is key for motivation. -It will slowly introduce MVC to you, but you don't have to bui…
Heh - its funny, I was really unnerved at my last internship where I was using PHP, it felt so weird with all this abstraction because of my C background but it felt really nice being able to not worry about to details and let the magic take over as you stated. Anyway, when you say Rails, are you talking about RoR, or just plain old Rails (is there a difference)? The stuff you learn from rails, did it teach you good…
There is Ruby the language, Ruby on Rails the framework or simply RoR or Rails for the lazy ;)
Re: Ask HN: Going from programmer to engineer
#30I've started and stopped programming, but feel like http://www.teamtreehouse.com has been really helpful. They have lots of videos to help fill gaps in knowledge, with a bunch on building web apps from start to finish, including RoR and other languages/frameworks.