Hi folks! I am Aditya (author of the article!)
Just got forwarded this by a friend to realise that it's trending here! :D
AMA if you want. Online for next hour.
I self-learned to code at 30
121–130 of 150 posts
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#122Not a big fan of these survivorship bias blog posts. I've been fiddling with code since I was about 11 years old (ActionScript for Club Penguin cheat tools as well as some Visual Basic). I got pretty serious in High School and learned Java as well Python. I am now pretty comfortable in the web stack as well as C, but still do not have the confidence to become a developer. I don't get how people can spend roughly 3 mo…
Hi! I am the author of that article.
> I don't get how people can spend roughly 3 months learning to code and make a career out of it. Surely they must be lacking in certain core areas of CS.
I kinda agree with you. One usually does NOT make a career in 3 months. But who says you can't? I definitely will fail all coding interviews even now after 1.5 years of practice. But I built a real SaaS app that people are paying for. It's not the best architecture. I am sure it will fail at scale. But hi, fuck it, I built something of real value.
The title is a bit clickbaity - but still true. Anyone can learn coding, no matter the age.
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#123Not a big fan of these survivorship bias blog posts. I've been fiddling with code since I was about 11 years old (ActionScript for Club Penguin cheat tools as well as some Visual Basic). I got pretty serious in High School and learned Java as well Python. I am now pretty comfortable in the web stack as well as C, but still do not have the confidence to become a developer. I don't get how people can spend roughly 3 mo…
I am not sure if it's a survival bias blog post, but the blogger is a businessman. No matter how much luck is involved, it still takes certain type of skills and character to do it well. I was an 'aspiring' businessman, but I never was able to execute the hustles and do all the things that a businessman do to make a living at it. I never learned how to do that nor do I possess mental fortitude to do such things. I ha…
Heh heh! I like the idea of being in love with the idea of being a businessman! :)
I wish I could tell you I have mental fortitude + hustle. I think I got lucky because I always had people around me who inspired me. I was a product owner / manager / CEO for quite some years who hung out with "techies" all the time.
PS I am the author of the article
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't like to say that not everyone can code. I like to say that not everyone will enjoy coding. Personally, I find it more liberating to confront my personal challenges in learning something in terms of how much fun I'm having and/or how much work it'll take to get good at it. For many years I told tried coding and told myself that I couldn't do it when it got to hard. But the honest answer is that I simply didn't…
I don't know why we have to sugarcoat it. Not only can anyone not be able to code, I'd go as far as saying that MOST people will never be able to code a production application no matter how much teaching/resources you throw their way. My mother, at her peak, would have never learned how to code even if you held a gun to her head.
Learning to code != learning to run a prod app with real clients.
I can learn to surf without being a professional surfer. So why can't I learn to code without wanting to make a career out of it?
PS I am the original blog author
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#125I started at 37 and got my first full time job a couple of months after I turned 38. I was a lawyer and hated it - now I love going to work every day. But it wasn't easy. I was working full time in a demanding profession and I'm married with two kids under 5 years old. So basically I spent every free moment I had working on learning HTML/CSS/JavaScript. If my kids were asleep, I was coding. I basically had to burn th…
That puts things into perspective. I sometimes worry about my ability to become a software engineer just because I never finished my degree and I'm in my late 20's. But I already know java fairly well and a few other languages like python as well, maybe its just a matter of making some more side projects and selling myself better.
As someone in my late twenties who started a little later than the people who went through CS in college w/ internships, etc., you can do it!
It takes a bunch of persistence - just keep chugging at applications and learning.
If you don't jibe well with the leetcode interviews (I certainly don't, I just don't do well and I think it has to do with my anxiety), aim for smaller companies or really just any that ends up having a laxer interview process. They do exist though!
I'm convinced the leetcode stuff selects for something largely orthogonal to ability. My major was practically the same as CS, if not harder in many ways (EE) - I can understand any of the concepts in their full math and theory, etc., I generally just don't have them at at my fingertips to perform on demand, aside from basics. This stuff belongs in books to be referenced as needed.
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#126I have a slightly cynical view about this sort of thing, and assume that most might have some counter-arguments for why my cynicism is misguided. I get that the point of the post is to encourage others, but proclaiming to have "learned how to code" feels misleading because there is no real finish line for it. This is an open-ended skill, there is no such thing as being done with it, same with most other skills. Maybe…
You are right! But what is that level when you say that you are a coder now? A software developer? When you graduate from a bootcamp?
When someone hires you? Maybe when someone pays you for an app you built?
For me it was the latter..
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#127Learning from YT videos, the kind you get by searching “learn programming” is IMO not a good idea. These videos are engineered for ad revenue and engagement metrics. Maybe be watch one or two to get a gist of how things come together but please buy a good book on the topic. Even better, take a college course in Coursera or EDx.
He called JSON, Git, and CSV 'languages' so... I have the feeling he didn't learn programming but was able to copy/paste a small project together.
Hi, I am the blog author.
This cracked me up! I have to go back and see where I made that goof up! :D But yeah you are probably right - I dont think I am the best software developer out there.
I can definitely code just good enough to cobble up a project together.
Just because my painting isn't good enough (yet), am I not a painter? Who awards that distinction? :) Genuine thought experiment ..
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#128Not a big fan of these survivorship bias blog posts. I've been fiddling with code since I was about 11 years old (ActionScript for Club Penguin cheat tools as well as some Visual Basic). I got pretty serious in High School and learned Java as well Python. I am now pretty comfortable in the web stack as well as C, but still do not have the confidence to become a developer. I don't get how people can spend roughly 3 mo…
There is very little overlap between computer science and workaday software development. Some analogies might be that an auto mechanic doesn't need a mechanical engineering degree, and a chef doesn't need a chemistry degree. Most software engineering work is skilled craftsmanship. You don't have to know much about the inner workings of a computer, or have the ability to invent (or even understand) efficient algorithms, in order to use the tools of the trade to construct something. Having the theoretical and academic background is helpful, opens a lot of doors, and is required in some challenging environments, but the vast majority of professional software developers don't need CS fundamentals to produce software.
I've got an academic CS background. I didn't learn much beyond what I'd already learned on my own, and the more advanced topics didn't stick because I didn't use any of them for the first decade or so of my career. Only a few jobs in the ensuing decades used any CS theory or advanced fundamentals. My bread-and-butter is web app development and devops, and I do believe anyone can learn to do that without a CS background. Especially in the current market where there are so many unfilled openings. There are plenty of small companies where a self-taught developer can thrive; not everyone needs to be a FAANG-level engineer.
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#129fuck me man lol
Re: I self-learned to code at 30
#130My experience with learning how to code, is just find some good guide, follow it TO BUILD A REAL USABLE PRODUCT. Learning by making a real usable product is the most important part here, other kinds of learning didn't work for me. P/S: This is different from learning by project. Project mostly is for fun, not a real usable product.
> follow it TO BUILD A REAL USABLE PRODUCT
And what would be a "real usable product" for you in that context? It's a genuine question, since I'm someone who would like to build engaging online courses.
I do have a Python course online although it teaches concepts from small examples..