Coding Is Hard
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Coding Is Hard
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Re: Coding Is Hard
#2Have been feeling very frustrated this past week working on something. Started wondering if I am dumb or is this actually hard. Decided to write a simple quick blog post on it -
Re: Coding Is Hard
#3> It's just refactoring the codebase a bit, reorganizing it, making it cleaner and more structured, and it's supposed to be easy.
Why is that supposed to be easy? When things start to sprawl, and more and more tech debt gets left behind (i.e., in the codebase) then complexity increases, as do the risk of balloon grabs (i.e., grab in one place and something pops out somewhere else).
Of course you're tired and demoralized, every change has to be second or third guessed.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#4Have been feeling very frustrated this past week working on something. Started wondering if I am dumb or is this actually hard. Decided to write a simple quick blog post on it -
I am certain you are not dumb, but personally I find that there are many things that I learn much faster when taught by other people.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#5I believe that stuck feeling, the helpless head banging feeling, is your brain forming new connections and breaking old ones. In other words, learning. That’s where the experience points are. Accept the feeling of being dumb and the reality of being smart, mixed together, and you’re advancing for real.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#6>It's just refactoring the codebase a bit, reorganizing it, making it cleaner and more structured
Famous last words.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#7> That's when I decided that I didn't need to go to college. I could just teach myself, for free, through all these online resources.
> I went through all the tracks, from basic HTML (again) to JavaScript and even Ruby amd Python. And I was super proud of myself for doing just that. I then started this 2-day python crash course...
> It's been 10 years since I first started learning how to code. And I still struggle with it, a lot.
> I go back to the basics, again and again and again.
There shouldn't be this much struggle after 10 years. I wonder if your issue is you were never intentional in your learning and practice and just bounced from topic to topic. You say you're the "idea guy." There's a saying that it's better to finish something than to start something.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#8Becoming a good coder is like mastering anything, it takes deliberate practice, discipline and time.
“I tried to do a 12 week course in 4 weeks” … and failed, fell into a flurry chaos of self doubt and gave up.
You are not going to shortcut it, you’re running in circles because you cut too many corners.
Take a big breath, focus yourself, divide your tasks into smaller chunks until you can actually solve them, and keep going. There IS NO QUICK FIX.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#9In a 6 year period, the blog post author has only worked as a software engineer as part of a team for _one year_. That likely explains why he still finds it hard.
Re: Coding Is Hard
#10Have been feeling very frustrated this past week working on something. Started wondering if I am dumb or is this actually hard. Decided to write a simple quick blog post on it -
Yo OP cool you commented here! At the very least I think your website is pretty good - and I like the prism logo. Being able to write up a post and have it get international eyes (via HN) is more than many people ever try to accomplish.
I often think of coding like making music: you don't need to be an expert at an instrument to make nice music - so much to the point where "making music" and "playing an instrument" can be considered very different things.