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Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

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Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#181

Post by ScottBurson »

agumonkey wrote: post #166
ScottBurson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP has it right. I've been programming almost 40 years, and I think it's safe to say I've achieved a certain level of mastery. But when I'm working on something hard, I still feel lost and stupid. I wouldn't have it any other way! If I don't feel challenged, I get bored really really fast.

Do you feel a difference in the way you handle the solution space exploration ? tricks or just decades-built patience ?

Patience, and a confidence that comes from having solved hard problems before. If there's a trick, it's to always focus on the part that doesn't make sense yet.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#182

Post by agumonkey »

ScottBurson wrote: post #181
agumonkey wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel a difference in the way you handle the solution space exploration ? tricks or just decades-built patience ?

Patience, and a confidence that comes from having solved hard problems before. If there's a trick, it's to always focus on the part that doesn't make sense yet.

Good point

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#183

Post by gremlinsinc »

My learning has progressed from one area to the next--each person learns differently, and coding can be easy to learn, but like everything else it's difficult to master. I started out on google, pulling snippets/coaxing them to do my will, then I became good at reading docs -- and implementing straight from the docs, for instance in Laravel/Rails apps.

The next big change for me was going beyond the docs to the actual API to do even more customization, and override existing methods. It's a progression from low-level understanding to higher, and whatever gets you there - just don't give up.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#184

Post by ryanpardieck »

mattmanser wrote: post #106
lazyjones wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Copy and paste doesn't help you at all with this. In some cases it may prevent you learning essential lessons and hinder your improvement. It annoys the heck out of me too when people apply for a programming job and cannot implement even trivial CS methods (like integer => string conversion with base N), then point out that they would just Google for a solution if they needed something like this. But to be honest,…

I have been programming professionally for 10 years, 5 years more as a hobby. I have been paid 100s of thousands of dollars, my code is used daily by 10s of thousands of people, I have built large, complex systems from scratch, worked in teams and by myself. The things I make do what they're supposed to, they don't break often[1], tend to be fast and usually my client is a happy bunny. I can fix anyone's code, even w…

I feel like it's a pretty common phenomenon for people to have their pet somewhat-arcane "gotcha" problem that they feel is the ultimate decider of who's shit and who isn't. And you're on HN, so the responses are going to be way more pedantic than just about anywhere else.

Personally I think this example is way more reasonable than most other technical "gotcha" problems. (I say that because I could solve it despite not having studied CS and being still relatively inexperienced.) But at least they're not asking how many pickles you could eat before exploding if you were shrunk down to the size of a kitten's tongue and placed on a miniature rocking horse that may or may not be alive inside its sad plastic shell.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#185

Post by thrush »

collyw wrote: post #179
thrush wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I think is cool about programming is that if you can understand a book, like the C Programming Language for example, then you can probably program. Although, being able to understand that book may take a little more work than just reading it (you might need some supplementary material). A lot of other pieces are soft skills for becoming a professional software engineer, such as time estimation, communication, ve…

Yes, but the coding part is usually the easiest party about being a programmer. All the other skills and knowledge you mention are what makes me far more valuable than when I started 14 years ago.

I think there is a huge distinction between learning how to program, and becoming a valuable programmer. We need to decrease the barrier to entry, so that the more valuable skills (such as abstraction, optimization, security, etc.) are reachable for everyone and anyone.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#186

Post by eropple »

drakaal wrote: post #176
fivedogit wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might as well say "basketball is easy". Sure, dribbling a ball can be taught instantly, but your 3 pt percentage or rebounding skill can continually improve over the course of a career. Just because you taught some 3rd graders a for loop doesn't make them coders and it certainly doesn't make them engineers. The programming is easy myth is doubly bad: it sets a false expectation for the aspirants and belittles act…

Mastering anything is hard. But kids play basketball. I can cook, but I'm not a master chef. That doesn't mean I don't do it. Nor does it mean "cooking is hard". Riding a bicycle is a lot harder than basketball.

You pretty clearly have no conception of basketball at the level he's describing.
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