Don’t make this one mistake as a self taught programmer
Having educating oneself about programming and software engineering as a whole is usually a tough path that’s also an error prone one. However, there’s one big mistake, or rather, an important learning nuance that you need to take into account.
What did you do first?
Being able to write computer programs usually implies to first having to choose a programming language itself. In many cases, the first language self-taught developer tend to choose is a high-level one that also usually doesn’t have a proper typing system (or has weak typing).
It’s fine to choose Python, JavaScript, Java or any other high-level language as your first one to code on. They are great for development of real world applications and, ultimately, they exist for a reason.
However there’s a certain distinction between a low-level (or mid-level) language and a high-level one that you need to understand before moving on with the article.
Low-level VS high-level languages.
The main difference between the two is the level of abstraction. Essentially, what it means is the amount of code a programmer has to write in order to tell the computer what exactly is that they want it to do (write instructions).
