Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
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Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
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Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#2Really good discussion of what falls apart when these "anyone can learn to code!" tutorials leave you high and dry, and how to get past that next huge hurdle of self-sufficiency.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#3I always thought the "Desert of Despair" was the point at which you should find a mentor with professional experience, instead of waiting for the "Upswing of Awesome".
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#4Really good discussion of what falls apart when these "anyone can learn to code!" tutorials leave you high and dry, and how to get past that next huge hurdle of self-sufficiency.
As someone who is currently learning how to code, the author gets it mostly right.
For me, the hardest parts of programming as a beginner - understanding OOP, data structures, etc. - didn't really 'click' until I stopped reading tutorials about them and start writing my own programs. The idea of 'objects' and 'instance variables' was mind boggingly confusing at first, but once I stopped worrying about how to make sense of them, the concepts somehow just fell into place.
I've also been trying to learn French simultaneously. The process was somewhat similar - taking a few Duolingo lessons and thinking that 'hey, I can do this!'. Then I read some actual French prose and everything seemed impossibly difficult. Things didn't 'click' until I started living and breathing French.
It's the same thing with coding.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#5This is probably true for a lot of other things. Learning an instrument, learning karate, etc.
basically its easy to get started than to keep going.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#6Personally I find the confidence vs competence graph to reflect my feelings when learning things in general, although not necessarily for the same reasons. There's always a period of eager discovery followed by the stark realization of how far away mastery is and finally the gradual slow crawl toward success.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#7Having taught many non-programmers to start their programming journey, this article rings very true.
The "cliff of confusion" he describes is a function of the Dunning-Kruger effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect), which indicates that you don't know how bad you are at something until you get better at it. As an educator, the challenge is to make that cliff as unscary as possible and chart a path through the "desert of despair" so that you're not pushing too much at one time.
On the other hand, as a self-learner it's really really hard to get past the point where you've learned enough to know how much you have yet to learn, or in terms of the article, when you look over the cliff and see how HUGE your journey is becoming.
To a large extent, the article is an advertisement (in more ways than one) for guided learning, expressed in a pretty clear way.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#8For me, by far the hardest part was finding the time. Learning to code on nights and weekends, when you've spent your most productive and focused hours at your job, is a nightmare. It wasn't until I was actually hired as a dev that I started to hit a steep learning curve, and I attribute much of that to spending 50 of my best hours/week coding, rather than maybe 20 of my worst.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#9Really good discussion of what falls apart when these "anyone can learn to code!" tutorials leave you high and dry, and how to get past that next huge hurdle of self-sufficiency.
As someone who is currently learning how to code, the author gets it mostly right. For me, the hardest parts of programming as a beginner - understanding OOP, data structures, etc. - didn't really 'click' until I stopped reading tutorials about them and start writing my own programs. The idea of 'objects' and 'instance variables' was mind boggingly confusing at first, but once I stopped worrying about how to make sen…
And math, really. Reading proofs is easy, writing your first proofs is really hard. Most people learn by doing, not by watching.
Re: Why Learning to Code Is So Damn Hard
#10This is probably true for a lot of other things. Learning an instrument, learning karate, etc. basically its easy to get started than to keep going.
I can't remember the source, but I learned this in a management class in college about 10 years ago. It was a general statement about learning something new. You don't know what your don't know (so you are optimistic) -> You realize you know nothing (so you are negative) -> Then you get better with practice -> Mastery