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Coding Is Hard

duttakapil.com

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Re: Coding Is Hard

#121

Post by clnq »

dehrmann wrote: post #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 w…

Even after a decade, many coders make limited progress for their potential, and some make very little. Progress depends on balancing consumption of knowledge and application. If one consumes a lot (watches many YouTube videos) but does not create anything with this knowledge, it is evident that they will not progress quickly. If one constantly applies the same knowledge and never seeks to learn new things, they will likewise stagnate.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#122

Post by brlewis »

Aaronmacaron wrote: post #93

Whenever I see someone like this on HN – someone whose motivation is to build a large company and make a lot of money, someone who is an "idea guy," someone for whom programming is merely a means to an end – I'm glad I'm not like this. I'm grateful that programming itself is genuinely fun to me, that I don't mind whether what I'm coding is useful or ends up generating money. I'm glad I program because I enjoy it, not…

From the article,

>As frustrating as coding can be, I am still in love with it. I love to see my code work, I love it when people can use it, play with it. I love building things, solving problems. I love making progress through difficult challenges.

The "idea guy" part of the story was from the writer's past.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#123

Post by [deleted] »

yuktrn wrote: post #25
dehrmann wrote: post #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 w…

I still struggle after 15 years into programming, and I never published or finished anything because of "judgement anxiety". I waste days, weeks, months writing and rewriting code and then I decide to abandon it because "other developers are going to see how shitty of a developer I am and it'll jeopardize my reputation forever".

[deleted]

Re: Coding Is Hard

#124

Post by strangesmells06 »

jdefr89 wrote: post #61
strangesmells06 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not even the most efficient search. I don't think any sort method in a language would use a bubble.

I agree it isn’t but the point I was trying to make is that when you have to do something from scratch, on your own, even if it’s simple, it can be a challenge. My example was poor because I am typing fast sitting in a car parking lot and I hate typing my thoughts on phones.. Forgive me..

I was agreeing with you haha

Companies ask that kind of stuff at interviews lol

Re: Coding Is Hard

#125

Post by kmoser »

david-gpu wrote: post #18
Manfred wrote: post #13

One of my students in a summer school class about programming just couldn't get their head around what a variable was. These concepts are very hard to teach when you are very familiar with them and they come natural to you.

A variable is a box where you can store a certain type of an object. For example, you can have a box with the right size and shape to store toy cars. At one point the variable (box) may contain a red toy car, and at another point it may contain a blue toy car. If you try to put a banana in there it won't fit because it has the wrong shape for that. We say that the type of the variable (the box) doesn't match the obje…

The concept of a variable is just the tip of the iceberg: the syntax for dealing with variables (e.g. assignment vs. testing equality) is difficult for newbies to grasp.

Next level of difficulty for newbies is arrays: understanding expressions to set and get values in an array; variables that hold indexes; non-numeric indexes; each of these is a potential huge stumbling block for newbies. And remember, these are just basic programming skills. Things get much harder from there.

The concepts of data manipulation, let alone the mechanics, are difficult for many newbies. Some never get past that point.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#126

Post by antod »

narinxas wrote: post #29
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luxury! I didn't have the benefit of a computer when I learned to program.

one man's luxury... how did you learn to program computers without computers around?

I didn't either as a kid. I had one of those British Usborne Publishing computer books - one of their intros involved paper only with a long roll of instructions you wrote out and pulled through a cardboard "window" for the current instruction while you kept track of variables on a sheet of paper.

I soon figured out you didn't really need the roll and cardboard window, and could just do the while thing on normal sheets of paper.

Got to try it out for real on a borrowed TRS80 not too long after that though.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#127

Post by d0mine »

airstrike wrote: post #44
jdefr89 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author says he struggled with concepts that are “easy” or supposed to be. In my experience of coding since 6th grade and having been in the industry for quite some time, it’s difficult to say something is supposed to be “easy” or “hard”. The author doesn’t give many concrete examples so it’s possible he is just assuming certain things should be super easy… A lot of programmers I meet love to claim they don’t stru…

I don't think writing bubble sort from scratch without mistakes is necessarily a good demonstration of someone's ability to "handle the basics" Realistically you will never need to write it yourself unless you're coding in some very specific domains It's at most a signal for whether or not they remember algorithms 101 or some leetcode exercise, but knowing that they do remember isn't really useful to me

No need to be so literal. Substitute "bubble sort" for "any simple algorithm involving nested loops/branches/collections" and the result is likely to be the same. Mistakes are common. Partially, that is why unit tests may be useful.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#128

Post by I_Am_Nous »

germandiago wrote: post #47
yura wrote: post #21

In my experience it’s not supposed to be that hard, unless you’re working at the cutting edge or on really hard problems. But from what you’ve written it seems like you’re struggling with basic stuff. Maybe you’re still lacking fundamentals? Seems like your strategy so far has been to grind tutorials and crash courses. They will make you feel like you’re learning a lot in a short time but in the end you’ll still not…

I have been giving advice to a person, young also (16 years old) and he thinks he can go very far very quickly. I told him to be patient, to insist, to commit time learning not only typical courses of how to code your website with a database. In fact I gave him advice against doing that first. I adviced him to learn binary/hex, algorithms, data structures and structured programming as a minimum. Also how a machine wo…

Something I have realized with my struggles in learning how to program is that it's as much a philosophy of how we get a computer to solve a problem as it is an experience learning the structure and syntax of a new language. Coming at it from a complete newbie perspective I don't even know what I don't know, so therefore I can't begin to learn what I should. At best, I can memorize how to do basic things but I don't understand the fundamentals of how those things work, or why they were designed that way.

To be honest, I don't have an objective reason to learn much CS as that's not my layer, so I'm butting up against my own ignorance any time I try to advance in something easy. And then my ADHD determines memorizing that information is unnecessary so I struggle to get concepts to sink in.

Recently I discovered Roblox uses Lua so learning that to make silly experiences for my son sounds wonderful. It's goal oriented so I can convince myself it's worth pursuing, and I feel like Lua concepts will help expand my toolkit for the future. But I'm also not starting from a blank IDE page going "geez how do I even know what to start building first..."

Re: Coding Is Hard

#129

Post by rramadass »

Posts like this are what is really wrong with this world :-)

I am going to be contrarian and be harsh on the OP but for his own good. Empty "feel good" responses that i see here are actually toxic positivity at work.

Grandiose opinions about oneself, making excuses for one's failures, being unclear about one's goals, not applying oneself seriously to actually studying something, not understanding the difference between true knowledge acquisition vs. posturing for the same, caring more about others opinions of oneself and allowing that to define oneself etc. are the original sins.

The answer has always been the age old advice "Apply yourself systematically and work hard".

Sit down, quiet yourself and ask "What are you trying to do and achieve?" Narrow it down ruthlessly to something small and specific and then do it.

Re: Coding Is Hard

#130

Post by ted_bunny »

SamPatt wrote: post #98
ted_bunny wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I object to bringing intelligence into the equation. It never explains anything that other factors couldn't. And it trains people to think they have innate limitations, which is a poor mindset for learning.

A common definition of intelligence is the capacity for problem solving. There are few fields where the capacity for problem solving is more relevant. People do have innate limitations. I agree that it's dangerous to categorize one's self too harshly, but it's also important to understand your own capabilities and limitations. Telling people they have no innate limitations sounds nice, but probably just results in th…

None of that implies an innate inborn limitation. Although I know the concept flatters a lot of people here.
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