Your Ladder in a Hole —Programming Motivation

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Programming is easy. As a joke said, it’s like riding a bike except the bike is on fire, you are on fire, everything is on fire, and you are in hell.

Still, you wanted to become a programmer or you already are. Many things are important to become a great one, and a list is below:

• A good machine with IDE
• A fast browser
• Unlimited internet connection
• Resources like books and pdf

You started out, reading theories, trying every code you see, applying techniques/algorithms and tasting every flavor of coffee. You were driving the freeway and you’re enjoying it. You saw beautiful trees, blooming flowers and tamed animals smiling at you. Then suddenly, everything was slowly changing. Grassland was turning into dessert, trees were dying, wild animals appeared and slaughtered every living things. Blood is everywhere. You don’t know what to do next, then you fell upon a big hole.

This is one of the hardest challenge for a programmer, climbing up again to continue your pursuit. You feel like it is the end of your journey. If you don’t get up as early as possible, you will get the habit of living in a dark lonely hole. Internet explorer will be faster than your learning curve. It is worse than watching a 144p video that buffers every 5 seconds.

I know what you need now, but I’m sorry I forgot to put it in the programmers list. Because it does not apply only in programming but almost all aspect in life. That thing is a ladder. Yeah you need a ladder to climb up, or better you could get an elevator or a space rocket.

What the heck can a ladder do in programming? This is no ordinary, ladder or elevator or space rocket. All these things represent motivation. With it, you can do some projects, but you might face spiders, moths and ants (bugs) that will pull down again your drive. You may feel useless that time and attempt to smash your monitor.

If you’re a learner like me, let me tell you some tips to stop you from stopping and build your own ladder.

1. Struggling right now? Can’t think any idea for a new project? The easy answer for that is rest. Go away from your machine and see the beauty outside. There are still other things that you can do to learn while enjoying. You can also sleep and might have a dream on how to fix that error on line 2371. But my personal favorite is taking a bath to freshen up both my mind and my body.
2. You have an idea that have many loopholes, so it keep you demotivated. Just do it. You can eventually seal those problem, as long as you start and never stop.
3. Read stories from people who failed 999 times but still pursued their dreams. They will help you continue driving even in a rocky zigzag volcanic road.
4. Join a programming community. You can communicate with other programmers and ask them tips and techniques. Try using Sololearn specially for beginners. There, you can ask questions, do assignments, and the great thing is, lessons are beginner-friendly and made by the community itself. You can also post your programs and get positive responses that will keep you motivated.

There are other things that will demotivate a programmer like unclear and hard to understand courses. If you can’t keep up with a lesson, you might feel dumb about what you’re learning and end up quitting. I have also a list of suggestion for lesson creators to help learners grow, not make them rot.

1. Create a lesson that follows a good ordering. If chapter 1 teach how to obtain a firewood, then chapter 2 must talk about how to build a fire. It should be arrange from smaller to bigger.
2. Avoid showing something too complex (unnecessary) for the topic just to impress your reader/listener, this is programming not a talent show.
3. Use plenty of analogy. Human’s native language is not JavaScript or C# so it is effective to use real-world object or situation and connect it to programming. Learners can easily construct concept in their mind without the need of pen and paper.

As a programmer, you must know that failures are normal. You should be grateful that you face truckload of problems because they are the one responsible for keeping you alive. These challenges will pull you down so you can bounce up high. Without it, everything is worthless. Just remember the story of a rabbit and turtle. You can still win even you’re slow, as long as you don’t stop. Never give up and always lit your heart of motivation.