Start small and grow
That’s the only way to make it
It’s not always easy to start learning a programming language, or anything new. After all, without a reason to learn, the motivation or discipline just isn’t there. Is there a reason why you’re learning?
The first thing to do when starting to learn a programming language, or indeed, anything, is to have a use case for it.
Instead of learning for learning’s sake, make something that interests you. What can you make? Do you want to make a service that queries your favourite clothes brand and tells you when things are at a discount? Do you want to make something that tells you when you’ve got a delivery coming with a specific delivery company? What about a mobile app?
The number of ideas you can have is immense! Some ideas are very difficult to implement, and at the start, you will feel this way about everything, but don’t let this discourage you. Instead, think of what minimum viable product you can make for an idea.
Instead of making a complex app to track all your deliveries, start by making a simple app to which you can give a tracking number, and it gets the tracking information for that one delivery.
- Then, expand it so it can query various delivery companies.
- Then, expand it so it can store the delivery details in a local database.
- Then, expand it so it can update the delivery status for you every 5 hours (for example).
I’m sure there are many more possibilities for expansion (mobile notifications, putting it on a web server instead of in your local machine, maybe even re-scheduling the delivery for you if you aren’t going to be at home!).
The important thing is to make something very simple, make it work, and then grow from there. Don’t start with something very complicated, because you will give up.
Every project can be simplified, and then simplified again. Start by developing this MVP, this “Minimum Viable Product”. As you develop, you will grow fonder of your product, and you will develop it further. Starting to make something complex with the hopes that it all comes together later on is a wish that seldom comes true in software.
