Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness

#11

Post by glassx » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 2:03 AM UTC

Brewer wrote: post #3

jacksondeane wrote: post #2

You are going to hear this anytime this question is asked. A: "Build Something!" Reading books and following tutorials are all well and good, but you are not going to fully understand what it takes to be a professional developers until you start creating full applications. Don't worry about the design, or perfect architecture, just come up with a small idea and build it.

I don't have any ideas and anything I see when I search for ideas just seems silly.

If you just want to practice programming, a Blog is a great idea, as invertedlambda suggested!

You can also try cloning sites you like, such as Twitter, Facebook, Hacker News. Or maybe a text-mode game. Anything that you might think is cool.

Or a tool for reading from some API you like. What about a command-line tool for getting the weather report based on your IP?

Re: Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness

#12

Post by Brewer » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 2:09 AM UTC

glassx wrote: post #11

Brewer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have any ideas and anything I see when I search for ideas just seems silly.

If you just want to practice programming, a Blog is a great idea, as invertedlambda suggested! You can also try cloning sites you like, such as Twitter, Facebook, Hacker News. Or maybe a text-mode game. Anything that you might think is cool. Or a tool for reading from some API you like. What about a command-line tool for getting the weather report based on your IP?

The site cloning idea sounds pretty neat. Maybe I will try to clone HN.

Re: Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness

#13

Post by veyron » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 3:36 AM UTC

First redefine "better". Better is not measured based against a report card. Strong programmers are better able at taking problems and representing them in an efficient manner in a programming language suited for the job.

Are you interested in an ambiguous project or one where the rules are pretty well-defined? Both are useful: the latter cultivates the ability to connive solutions to clear problems (building the mechanics), and the former cultivates the higher-level ability to dissect and attack a problem.

As an example of the former, just fish around for ideas from this and other sites, or just try doing something based on your own idea.

As an example of the latter, try to build something where the protocol is well-defined. For example, build a simple web server or quantitative trading platform or web-based git client. In all cases, the protocols are fairly straightforward, and you merely have to implement them.

Re: Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness

#14

Post by Brewer » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 5:27 AM UTC

veyron wrote: post #13

First redefine "better". Better is not measured based against a report card. Strong programmers are better able at taking problems and representing them in an efficient manner in a programming language suited for the job. Are you interested in an ambiguous project or one where the rules are pretty well-defined? Both are useful: the latter cultivates the ability to connive solutions to clear problems (building the mec…

bet·ter -- adj. Comparative of good. -- Greater in excellence or higher in quality.

Please excuse the smart ass answer, but it's the best I had :P

I want to feel like I know what I'm doing, because half of the time I feel like I am just wandering around aimlessly like a chicken with its head cut off.

I want to be able to take an idea and turn it into a product that people would be willing to pay for.

I suppose I want to be a bit of a Jack of All Trades.

Re: Ask HN: Please help me get out of this infinite loop of n00bness

#15

Post by veyron » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 1:21 PM UTC

Brewer wrote: post #14

veyron wrote: post #13

First redefine "better". Better is not measured based against a report card. Strong programmers are better able at taking problems and representing them in an efficient manner in a programming language suited for the job. Are you interested in an ambiguous project or one where the rules are pretty well-defined? Both are useful: the latter cultivates the ability to connive solutions to clear problems (building the mec…

bet·ter -- adj. Comparative of good. -- Greater in excellence or higher in quality. Please excuse the smart ass answer, but it's the best I had :P I want to feel like I know what I'm doing, because half of the time I feel like I am just wandering around aimlessly like a chicken with its head cut off. I want to be able to take an idea and turn it into a product that people would be willing to pay for. I suppose I want…

"I want to be able to take an idea and turn it into a product that people would be willing to pay for." You just need to do lots and lots of dummy exercises, developing experience with the tools at hand. Then, when you attack the next great thing, you can draw upon your previous examples to figure out what to do.

As a personal example, I used to start writing very large assembly projects in straight x64 assembly. This has a logistical problem, namely that you dont necessarily have a working version for weeks.

Then i discovered python! After doing a few small projects in python, I saw the light (the productivity of python) and nowadays I find myself starting in python and slowly reducing components to C/C++ (using python/C or boost::python) and finally replacing those components with assembly equivalents.