You’re learning to code the wrong way

I see it all the time. Friends. or family learning how to program grab a book and read it from cover to cover, do a few exercises and then start looking for a programming job.

Sometimes they may end up getting one, but more often than not, they pick another career because coding is “too hard”.

No wonder most university graduates are working in different careers. You might think that having some books and knowing the syntax of a language or two makes possible to call yourself a programmer.

But it doesn’t.

To become a real programmer you need to have real problems to solve. With that being said here are some tips to make it as a programmer.

Learn the language core first

Start by learning about variables, conditions, looping, functions and classes first. Don’t bother trying to learn the standard library or API of your language.

You can learn the syntax and fundamentals of a new language in a few days. Especially Go, Ruby, PHP and Python.

Have a real problem

Identify a real project that you want to start. It should be small enough that you can take it on alone, but challenging enough that it makes you uncomfortable.

Find where the Docs are buried

This part is important. Especially the standard library and API of the language you’re learning.

Bookmark the best documentation sources, as you’ll need to return to them time and time again.

And because you have these core docs handy, you’ll yourself turning less to conflicting sources like Stack Overflow.

Now that you have those three parts all ready to go, it’s time to start working.

Map out our project step by step and tackle it one screen at a time.

Work on the user interface first, then start putting code in place to make each screen work.

Here’s the important part, let’s say that you need to learn how to save something in a database, look that up, google it, consult the API docs.

There, you just learned how to do one thing — it’s a guarantee that you’ll not forget it any time soon.

Now as you need to do something else learn that too — at that time.

This is how humans learn — by making mistakes. Bit by bit.

It does not matter if it’s a programming language, French or carpentry.

Stop trying to learn everything at once. It’s easier when you don’t.

And by creating a real project that’s online for others to use, it’s a valuable reference for employers.

So happy coding. I look forward to seeing what you put out there.