How to start learning PHP when you’re terrified of doing it?
So maybe you took a turn in your life and decided to learn to code, and though it was hard, a thousand cups of coffee and a few sleepless nights helped you succeed in learning HTML and CSS, maybe bootstrap, and a few lines of JQUERY to move things a little in your websites. But once you’ve decided to learn backend languages for dynamic websites, especially PHP, because you’re reading this article, I think, you may have some difficulties doing it. You spent more than a few sleepless nights, but it still feels foggy.
I’ve been here myself, and I’ve learned all about loops and conditions, and PHP functions. But when I started mixing PHP with HTML to create real systems, I felt completely lost, that I had to give up on my first dynamic website and pass it to someone else. I believed for months that maybe backend coding isn’t for me. But because like any other programmer, I had always that fighting spirit inside of me, I overcome my fear and decided to take up the challenge once again, with imaginary projects and imaginary clients, and I succeeded, because this time when I had a real client, I could accomplish what I had started months before, and that did feel good. So I decided the give you here in this article 11 points, that helped me find my path towards learning PHP:
1- PHP is not hard, just different: difficult to believe when you tried a few times to code with PHP and failed each time, but not because it needs a higher QI than yours, coding languages were never hard, it’s just a myth (trust me when I tell you this) you just need to learn the mindset of each language.
2- Don’t learn the code, learn the spirit: yes, PHP is a backend coding language, so you must learn how to process algorithms as a machine does, so watch videos of people coding, making systems, and try to learn their way of thinking, seeing problematics in real life, and translating them into programs. once you get this, the rest is simple.
3- Repeat, repeat, and repeat your tutorials: yes you may feel stupid for doing it, but trust me, you will feel a thousand times more of a fool if you go straight ahead applying that code you learned, because it’s a new language for you, and it takes time to be comfortable with it, just like starting to learn Spanish while you’ve been speaking English for all your life, it’s not just about the words, it’s about taking it in.
4- Baby steps practice: don’t think of building a whole complete website, or a complicated web app, just starts with small systems: registration, connection forms, profile page. Even if no client will look for that or the other alone, that’s fine, you will have plenty of the time to learn how to do it all.
5- Copy and paste codes and learn how to edit them: it’s an efficient way to learn how to code, whether small systems line codes, or an e-commerce website, most importantly you study that code, be comfortable with it, and even if you can’t understand all of it in one day, take a part of it each day and dig into it, feel free to edit the parts you can change, and for the rest, you have a lifetime to do it.
6- Be comfortable with the PHP documentation: I know, you heard that a lot, but seriously?! you’re thinking, I can’t write a few lines of PHP code, and you want me to visit the documentation, plus there are tones of Youtube videos, why would I need the documentation? But for real, not just to play the nerd, it’s helpful because being comfortable with the documentation makes you believe that this language is made for everyone to use including you, not just for some brainy nerd guys with glasses in their basement, who were born ready for codes and stuff like this, it’s for normal people, and somehow, you’ll be a little less afraid of it.
7- Start with the system basics: if you’re coding a registration form, make it simple, with no colors or distractions, and focus on success messages, alerts, and DB queries, no need to worry about colors and designs at first, because it’s not the same spirit, once you’re done with backend, switch to design.
8- Corps matters, but design also: so test projects or not, design them, make them pretty, fun, and clean, because if you leave them black on white, you won’t feel the satisfaction of a complete work, so respect them and bring life into them.
9- Detach yourself from your feelings for a moment, and start by writing your project criteria: Trust me, once you start coding, you’ll get lost in it, especially if it’s for practice, so you’ll risk working on it for the rest of your life feeling it’s never done, which will prevent you from having the chance of working on other projects. Or giving up on it the second you face an obstacle and decide it’s not necessary. So to avoid that, take my advice.
10- You can always say no to projects you’re not ready for: so subcontractor or employed, you can always say no when you feel unready for a project, and I’m not talking about when you’re afraid here, never let that stop you, surmount it. But I’m talking about when this work is really big for someone with your experience, with the skills you have. So don’t lock yourself in a corner and give yourself space to grow.
11- There is always more to learn: and we all know that theatrically, but what does it mean in reality? It means, that knowing the least in the room never makes me the least confident, and knowing the most never makes me the laziest, because doubt and ego are the worst two enemies for learners, for people like us who want to finish the rest of their lives learning and improving day after another.
