How did I learn programming on my own?
A lot of people do want to learn programming, but they are not sure where to start from. It’s completely ok, we all have been there.
In order to efficiently learn programming, you have to decide what type of learning do you agree with yourself on: learn programming using docs (my type), using courses, by trying and trying.
Programming is art. Art is creative. Programming opens the creative mind of a mathematical person, which is awesome.
I’ve been good at programming because it gave me the satisfaction of seeing my results being appreciated constantly by the people which were using my apps.
The biggest advantage
The “one” that made me chose programming over other activities. There are no mistakes. Yeah — no mistakes. You can’t do something wrong.
Ok, you write some code. It doesn’t function. Now what? Exactly. Nothing.
Programming encourages you to make mistakes. You do something wrong. You repair it, maybe not after an hour, a day or a week, but you will do it.
As a beginner, you are allowed to spend time solving errors, but as a professional, assuming you have enough experience, you can’t afford that.
In the beginner stage, the only cost for mistakes is the time. No other costs. In the advanced stage, it may cost you time and money, it depends. The more you advance, the more you learn how to avoid mistakes by writing more professional code.
Where to start?
Start with Google. Go and search some information about the type of apps that you want to develop. For exemple, let’s presume that your wish is to create mobile apps — Google will tell you to do that with React Native or Flutter.
Or, you want to develop backend APIs or robust apps, Google will tell you to learn Django and make your app using it.
With a simple search, you receive the most important information — where to start from.
Google told me that Django is the one. Search for Django, you’ll definitely find it’s official website and it’s official documentation. Read the documentation, i guarantee it will make sense to you.
Programming and developing is free. You don’t have to pay for almost anything. You can read the most-performant framework documentation for free. They’ll also tell you how to start, what commands you should type in your terminal or your console, what code should you write and what does it mean, almost anything.
Courses — Yes or no?
Only you can tell yes or no. I’m not a big fan of courses, being an autodidact. For me it’s better to read the documentation and constantly try commands and codes.
Courses in programming may cost some money, and I really don’t understand why people pay that much for some re-structured documentations.
If you want to follow a course, I highly recommend you Codecademy. Here, get a link.
They have a very user-friendly learning pattern which may help you at some point.
Once started, don’t you dare to stop!
Yeah, programming needs a lot of attention from you. The main word of learning programming is consistency. If you really want to learn programming, don’t ever stop trying, trying again, retrying, receiving errors, solving errors.
All of them are part of the process. It’ll cost time, but if you like what you’re doing, it is worth it.
My actual stage
I’ve been programming since I was 10. I loved to program. I loved the process of developing powerful apps. I loved the way apps are developed to the world. I loved it all.
But it wasn’t for me. My projects were too big just for me — too much to handle for only one person (me). I tried building with others, but our work pattern didn’t match at all.
That’s why if you want to make something big in programming, learn together with your team. My experience recommends this — Do you want to build with someone? Build yourselves together before, and then start your projects.
Thanks for reading my article. Happy programming.