I Finally Took the Plunge and Learned to Code
Full disclosure: I am not a hypocrite. I’ve just been swamped with work.
In July, I published an article titled,
Overcoming Writer’s Block: Tips for Staying Productive This Summer
Then proceed to vanish off the face of the world. Choose to put off writing for the next three months. I choose to go further into learning code because, at least, I have a good excuse (rare). Due to legal and/or privacy considerations, I am unable to share why I decided to learn how to code, but I can talk about what I have learned so far.
I’ve found that writing code is a task that can be done efficiently and effectively.
On the other hand, the Learn to Code movement has done a great job of breaking down barriers and showing people that coding is actually harmless. Tools like Codecademy, w3schools, and LeetCodes will reach out to you in the gentlest of ways to assure you (no, everyone!) that you too can learn to code and become a full-fledged developer.
Code challenges help you build problem-solving skills, better understand the programming language you use, and learn about algorithms you may be unfamiliar with. If you want to improve your programming skills, there is no better way than by writing code. Also, coding challenges are handy because they allow you to practice your skills on a small problem, and you rarely need to build a full application, so you can usually do them fairly quickly.
Our understanding of the code needs to change as we iterate on the solution. To reflect our improved understanding of the code, we can either delete old code, write new code , or we can edit existing code! This is usually the most efficient way if the code we write is easy to change.
I’ve been practicing writing code for a while now, and here’s what I’ve learned.
I’ve learned a lot, and now I write a lot of code, which helps in my work as a journalist and book author. I wrote little scripts and programs to make my work and personal life easier. I also find that I love it — intellectually and creatively, it can be an absolute blast.
Of course, online tutorials and books can teach you the basics very well. But what really teaches you how code works is when you’re trying to build a piece of software that can do something. That’s when you finally come to terms with what you did and didn’t know. It’s the difference between learning French phrases from a book or class, and then going to a restaurant to order.
Remember, coding is not so much a memory exercise as it is a way of building something out of blocks. Just like learning a real foreign language, understanding comes first, which is a good sign that you’re on the right track.
