Programming is hard.
What if it doesn’t come naturally to you?
There are a lot of aspiring developers here on Medium. There are a lot of expert software engineers, too.
If you’ve read some of the brilliant pieces about programming, you might have walked away feeling like you’re not cut out for this.
I want to set the record straight, because imposter syndrome is real:
- Programming is hard for everyone.
- It’s okay if it doesn’t come naturally to you.
- You can and will be successful if you figure out how you learn.
Programming is hard for everyone.
I started “coding”¹ when I was young, and at the time, it did come naturally to me. Well, HTML came naturally to me. I didn’t venture into JavaScript or Ruby until my late 20s, and at that point, let’s just say it wasn’t intuitive.
There is not a single developer on this platform — or outside of this platform — who closes their eyes, writes perfect code before lunchtime, pats themselves on the back for a job well done, and lays down watching the money flow in.