“Which Programming Language Should I Learn First?”

tl;dr: start with whichever language your best friend is most comfortable with.

When a person sets out to learn programming, two outcomes are possible. Either they succeed, or they give up. If you don’t give up, you’ll eventually succeed.

People usually give up on learning to code either because they get bored, or because it takes too much effort (i.e. they keep getting stuck). The former problem is easy to avoid: pick a language (and/or project) that‘s really interesting to you. Most people get this part right. The latter one is where I think people mess up — people fail to learn programming because they get stuck and give up.

With this in mind, I now tell all my friends to learn Ruby. Why Ruby? It’s not really easier to learn than, say, Python. The difference is that I know Ruby really well. If a friend of mine has a question about Ruby at 3 A.M. on a Saturday night, they can call me and I’ll probably still be able to give a helpful answer.

If you want to learn how to code, start with whatever language (or framework, etc.) your best friend is most comfortable with. You’ll be able to get help easily, and you won’t get stuck as often.