I am trying to become a Python Developer (Don’t know which career path). I am going through Tutorial Hell and it’s like I have learned nothing. I feel like learning programming is better in a school environment with teacher and students (for me at least).
Tutorials are useless to me. When I was learning how to program, I did so as a means to an end, not for the sake of learning. I’ve found that learning for the sake of learning never works, I have to learn in order to do something specific that I am interested in.
When you use tutorials in the way most people use them, you end up learning how to complete the tutorial and nothing more. If you do decide to use one, try to modify it and add some functionality. Be aware that you will likely fail at first, and that this should not be discouraging. You need to get used to thinking in the right mindset and using the language in order to get good at it. At first, it will feel like you’re just doing trial and error constantly, this is good, as it is training your brain to recognize what works and what doesn’t. You need to be patient and get through that initial learning curve, then things will get much easier.
Finally, master the basics before you get more complex, and learn each concept as you need it. So, if you don’t need to know how to make a webserver right now, for example, don’t learn about it for the sake of learning, do it when you need to. This way, you won’t overload your brain with information that isn’t needed. It also means you will get to practice your newfound knowledge immediately after you learn it, helping cement it in your brain. After a while, you will no longer need to do this, as you will have a general idea of how things tend to work, and that will allow you to easily pick new concepts up as needed.
When I was learning how to program, I did so as a means to an end, not for the sake of learning. I’ve found that learning for the sake of learning never works, I have to learn in order to do something specific that I am interested in.
Had the same experience. Back in highschool I wanted to make a website, so I needed HTML. Then that website expanded, so I eventually got into PHP, dabbled a bit in SQL and JS too. It was all self taught and probably horrible style- and security-wise, but it was effective as heck.
I’ve seen had uni classes, done tutorials and whatever in Python, C, C++ and some more, but never got any further than the tasks/exercises from those classes, because I never had a real need for any programs myself. Thing is, I kinda need to learn this stuff for my career. Any tips how to get out of this when you don’t have any concrete problems or projects to use as a driver for learning?
I’ve had a word with some programmers over on https://lemmygrad.ml/c/prog on this subject and reached a similar conclusion. We ought to start some kind of programming school on here. Something as simple as a weekly 1-2 hour zoom class lead by one experienced teacher with a particular starter project in mind would do wonders for giving beginners a chance to get their feet wet.
that would be lovely, i’ll happily pay for it too.
I know the feeling of programming being pointless without a goal in mind.
I had chemistry exams and made a python program that received as input an empirical chemical equation and outputted the weight of the molecule, and a bunch of other repetitive calculation, thats an example of a project i did.
I don’t know how to break out of this.
