Don't Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy - TechCrunch

08/08/2014 14:05 Dont Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy | TechCrunch
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Editors note: Kate Ray is the technical
cofounder of scroll kit, a visual webpage
creation tool that was recently acquired by
WordPress.com.
One of the most dangerous things Ive seen
happen to people who are just starting to
code is being told that its easy.
Heres what your brain does:
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Dont Believe Anyone Who Tells You
Learning To Code Is Easy
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Drawing by me. (I am better at coding than drawing.)
Most programming doesnt require a
special brain, but its more frustrating and
messier than anyone lets on. There are
thousands of enthusiastic blog posts,
classes and apps that aim to entice you
with the promise of a slick, unequivocal
procedure for learning to code. They rarely
mention the tedium of getting your
environment set up (which, trust me, even
the nicest of your programmer friends
dont want to help you with, because that
stuff is mad frustrating and nobody
remembers how they did it).
They dont tell you that a lot of
programming skill is about developing a
knack for asking the right questions on
Google and knowing which code is best to
copy-paste. And they dont let you in on a
big secret: that there is no mastery, there is
no !nal level. The anxiety of feeling lost
and stupid is not something you learn to
conquer, but something you learn to live
with.
This winter I decided to learn iOS. Id taught
myself how to code the summer after
college, so I was pretty cocky about my
ability to pick up a new language. I forgot
how hard it is. After getting over my
resentment of Xcode (this Storyboard thing
looks like its for babies, this isnt real
programming), I launched into a series of
projects that were too advanced for me.
iOS turns out to be different from web
development; everything I expected to be
hard was easy and everything that should
have been easy was hard. I was impatient
and annoyed with myself.
What I forgot is that the most common
state for a programmer is a sense of
inadequacy. As a programmer, there is a
limitless amount of stuff to learn. You can
become a specialist in one language or
framework, but if your job is to build things
e"ciently, you will constantly need to be
learning new tools and constantly feel out
of your depth. It helps to be mentally
prepared for feeling stupid.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
came up with an insightful way of
visualizing the learning process (for any
discipline):
Adapted from an image in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Ive found my experience to follow that line
closely, and came up with this Recursive
Recipe for Learning to Program:
1. Follow a tutorial step-by-step even if you
dont always understand what youre
doing. I like to think of Hunter S.
Thompson copying the books of the
Great Masters on his typewriter. Youre
getting a feel for how things are done in
your new language/framework. This part
should be easy, if boring, because youre
just doing what youre told. [Incline of
Optimism]
2. Rebuild the thing you just made or a
slight variation of it. Try not to use the
tutorial too much. Realize just how little
you understood of what you were doing.
[Fear tugs, slowing your ascent]
3. Try to build something simple that you
actually want to make. Discover that you
have absolutely no idea what youre
doing. [Sea of Despair]
4. Find a new tutorial related to your new
project. (Hopefully your tutorials are
providing you with increasing
background on the language.) Follow the
steps. [Slight sense of understanding,
rise in self-worth]
5. Rebuild the thing yourself. [Fear]
6. Start a new project. [Despair]
7. Repeat steps 1 through 6.
Im a big fan of tutorials. During this
process, I made an app for collecting the
best tutorials recommended by
programmers whove used them. Hopefully
it will shorten the stumbling-around period
before you get into the groove of learning
and help you !nd the good stuff faster.
As long as you learn to grind through the
frustration, youll come out on the hillsides
and get a good view of your progress. Be
okay with not understanding everything,
trust that you are getting better even when
you cant see your progress, and dont
rush. Good luck.
Huge thanks to the Shuttleworth Foundation,
whose amazing Flash Grant prompted me to
go down this path of learning new things and
gave me time to work on Teach Yourself To
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Sriram Srinivasan Top Commenter Teaching Assistant at Department of Computing Science,
University of Alberta
Instead of learning one (or more) programming language, one should understand problem-solving
techniques such as algorithms/data structures/combinatorics (not advanced stu!, just basic).
When one is learning these techniques, one can practice this using one language
(C++/java/python). This way, when you want to code in some other language, your mind will be
able to think about solving the problem algorithmically rst, and then you can read the
documentation about the specic programming language. In practice, most programming
languages share a lot of similar concepts/syntax.
Reply Like Follow Post May 25 at 2:26am
View 11 more
77
Adam Panzica Top Commenter Robotics Engineering at National Robotics
Engineering Center (NREC)
The biggest failure in most computer science education is the focus on learning the
semantics of a particular language, rather than focusing on teaching problem solving
skills.
Reply Like May 25 at 3:47am 49
Jesus Eduardo Ramirez Top Commenter
head meets nail.
the meat and potatoes of programming is the critical thinking needed to solve problems
and create solutions.
good call there
Reply Like Edited May 25 at 3:49am 10
Jim Shaw Top Commenter UT Dallas
even before learning all that CS theory, I feel one should have a solid grasp on math.
specically discrete math and linear algebra.....
Christian Hresko Top Commenter Director of Product - Mobile at ROBLOX
Completely disagree with many of these comments. You really want to learn what's applicable to
what you're building. There's a lot of 'practical' applications of Comp Sci that don't require rigid
mathematics, data structures, runtime analysis, etc. If we want more people interested in Comp
Sci/Programming (and we do), why start o! by intimidating them?
Follow
16
Fabio Dos Santos Franco Sorocaba, Brazil
I do agree that we should not start o! by scaring them, but banalizing the trade is not
the answer either. I've lost count of how much terrible code I had to maintain for the
lack of proper education. Nowadays lots of kids think it is an easy way to earn money
and don't look for proper education. This is plaguing the industry, at least where I live.
You don't get to build houses just by reading a "construction for dummies" book.
Reply Like May 27 at 1:38pm
Follow
Matt Watson Top Commenter Georgia State
I recently tried to learn Python after having little to no coding experience. I can create very detailed
and macro rich spreadsheets for my job so I gured it's essentially the same logic just in a di!erent
language.
language.
Sites like codeacademy are not built for beginners no matter how they advertise themselves. I hit
so many roadblocks on that site simply because 2 hours in and it was giving directions as if you've
been coding for 2 years. I had more luck with Learn Python the Hard Way, but my motivation of "I
can learn to code and x problem A at work" became heart-breakingly far away when I realized just
how much you had to learn to accomplish that.
Maybe one day I'll have the time to dedicate to learn Python, but until then I'll stick to macro
recording and excel!
View 5 more
10
Ti Na
I won' agree that codecademy is not suitable for beginners or rst advanced
programmers, I would rather say, that the order of languages u get started in coding is
the most crucial thing to focus. I started with the mother of all coding C++ and got an
idea of variables, datatypes, operators, functions, control ows, loops, structures,
typecasting, pointers, elds, strings, classes, constructors, destructors, this, class
variables and methods, inheritance, public and private accessing, polymorphism in that
logical order and most important learn to understand what a preprocessor, compiler,
terminal, linker is doing with ur source code that takes a lot of starter barriers as u get
an idea of how ASCII code is translated to be read by a virtual machine...after I got a
basic understanding of those themes, I started with codecademy lessons (great Q&A
support or stackoverow) and I'm happy with the progress I made and this makes me
highly motivated to keep it up..learning it the hard way as a noob I would stuck and
lose patience, especially when I'm not that much in CS related stu!. To cut a long story
short, I would agree wth the author that it's not as easy as everybody pretends it to be
and will remain a lifetime challenge but that's what we like about technologies, they
always improve and get smarter to handle :)
Reply Like Edited May 25 at 7:09am
Follow
6
Renato Rocha Top Commenter Pontifcia Universidade Catlica de Minas Gerais
I think Codecademy can be suitable for begginers with the right mindset of what
programming is and what to expect from it. Overall, I agree that should exist a balance
with problem solving algorithm and the initial contact with a rst language, and it
should be taught that way, not a tossed syntax like you normally see at college.
Kendall Scott University of North Texas
If you want to learn python then www.udacity.com could be a good choice. They have a
really good comprehensive look at some basics before they delve into the syntax. I am
watching those even though I am learning php not python.
Reply Like May 25 at 2:15pm 3
Darren Venn New York, New York
Finally someone who is telling the truth. Programming is hard. That's why recruiters chase us on
LinkedIn, because not everyone has the patience for it.
Tackling iOS after your rst course is very challenging, so you gave yourself a more di"cult task
than most. Xcode is a di"cult environment to code well in. Anyone can string together a series of
ViewControllers, but the ner detail of iOS is extremely challenging. I've been coding for over 20
years and I think Xcode is the most di"cult, convoluted IDE I've encountered. So much of it is
exceptions and hunting for the right link/build parms. The simplest of tasks in iOS can be di"cult.
The easiest environment I ever coded in was VS2008. For a brief period of time Microsoft got it
right. You could code up an application and put it into Prod in about a week or two, and i...
See More
Reply Like Follow Post May 25 at 3:12am 9
Carl Trachte
I learned to program in VB6 and VBA then decided I wanted to start doing open source projects
and contribute. I took a course in C online from the University of Washington. I made it through but
it totally kicked my ass. I've programmed professionally since but really, learning to program "for
real" is anything but easy.
Reply Like Follow Post Edited May 25 at 5:54pm 6
Lee Potter Works at University of Northern Iowa
This is my frustration with GIS software; they have tremendous power and exibility but
require an inordinate amount of programming prowess. I want a pet programmer rather
than a pet programming project.
View 8 more
Jim Fischer Production Supervisor at SensoryE!ects
I get you. I took a c primer, not too bad. Moving on with more intense classes, I found
out just how hard it really was.
Carl Trachte
Jim Fischer Every program I wrote in C had memory dangling/leaking somewhere.
That's because I hadn't yet learned to break problems into manageable chunks and
functions. It was a brutal learning experience, but a worthwhile one.
Trent Hamilton Top Commenter
eh, languages are easy. they all come down to syntax. i can type out at least ten ways to reference
pi in various languages - but they're all just pi. what's truly di"cult and the never-ending learning
process is the combination of critical thinking and the art of problem solving. so many like to
shu#e programming o! as some supremely technical thing because OMG MATH AND TYPING; i
disagree. i see it as an art.
Reply Like Follow Post May 25 at 12:06pm 6
Anthony M. Sanders Top Commenter
Absolutely! Managers want metrics. The need to know that this project is on time.
Unfortunately, programmers are really artists. No one knows the precise code to
accomplish your task; It is not a science. They will discover that code in the process.
And artistry doesn't run on a precise schedule.
This drives managers crazy. They want on-time, and your giving them "maybe" in three
more days. You are supposed to be an engineer, but you are so much more.
I love driving managers nuts.
Lee Hammond Top Commenter SQL Developer at ImPulse Systems
Anthony M. Sanders Great comment! This also applies to project plans and time
estimates: how do I know how long this will take, until I try to do it? I love driving
project planners nuts, when they ask for time estimates. OK, give me a number...then
the spec changes. Give me another number.
Mark Ehle Top Commenter Western Michigan University
Anthony M. Sanders - I agree totally. I was a professional musician and arranger before
I took up programming (way steadier work!). I nd many similarities between writing
music and programming. Writing code is much like composing and I can't do my best
work on a schedule. Some days, the ideas just ow, some days are a total cluster-you-
know-what. Fortunately for me my manager is understanding and knows that if she just
leaves me alone, good things happen.
Matt Cooper Top Commenter Los Angeles, California
There's been a lot of snotty comments from VB and TC about schools that teach people how to
develop. I think it's best to simply encourage young people to try this skill as a career instead of
getting into pedantic debates about how hard it is or isn't. We need more developers. What are we
gaining by trying to scare young people away?
Follow
5
Nick Fisher Top Commenter Software Engineer at The Internet
Desire is everything. If you want to learn, then any time spent is well spent. Learning without desire
is impossible. This article's take on the 'boredom' aspect kind of gets me.
Think of professional athletes. Just because a basketball player has made millions of free throws in
his life, doesn't make the next one in a game any more or less 'boring'. You learn a skill and then
you use it to accomplish a task. If you're not using your skills to accomplish a task, of course it'll
be boring! Remain objective and you will succeed.
Trying to take a shot you've never -tried- before and labelling it anxiety is a bit rough. Sure, it -can-
be stressful if you let it, but remember: 'learning something new' is something you've done before,
and must continue doing to be an e!ective player in this game.
Anurag Panna Top Commenter CEO & Founder at Codetag Studio Follow
Programming is not that hard, Once you learn the semantics,it is pretty easy.However, problem
solving techniques i.e, Data structures, Algorithms are the hardest to understand, and not only
programming, one should have a focus on Network and Databases too. Modern programming is
not just about a programming languages, instead we use internet and databases too on a daily
basis.
Josh Lindsay Software Engineer at Yahoo
Interesting, nothing worth doing is easy. I started out as an artist, and over the years, found myself
in engineering roles, on everything from games for the xbox, to video, web-dev, mobile, databases
ext, and more recently animatronics ie robots. I think the trick is to fallow your curiosity, if you lack
curiosity, your learning progress will stagnate rendering you knowledge antiquated, as technology
continues to evolve. Art on the other hand seems to have an enduring e!ect. For instance, all the
illustrations I had created in Art school are cooler today then when I created it, because its 14
years old now. Where as all the code I had written in the same time period is obsolete.
http://blog.crazyreds.com/portfolio/
Reply Like Follow Post May 25 at 8:28pm
Follow
3
Austin Peterson GBMF Lead RN-MGH at Mercy General Hospital
Nice perspective
Ti Na
great respond and I agree in all aspects! But how did u get in gaming that quick? I
started also more as an artist and I am so eager for game dev that I am at least thinking
to study sth in that direction? Can u advice a good way to e!ectively get 1st game
apps run because when I build my 1st one I got relatively fast stuck and thought that a
game dev has to completely think di!erent than an artist do?
Reply Like May 26 at 3:17am
Follow
Mark Ehle Top Commenter Western Michigan University
Curiosity is everything. It's impossible to keep up otherwise.
Jonathan Gros-Dubois University of Queensland
I started programming intensively since I was 14 and it's only now (11 years later) that I feel like I'm
on the cutting edge of my specic area of expertise. Some of the stu! I wrote 5 years ago would
be embarrassing for me to look at today - And maybe what I'm writing now will embarrass me 5
years from now... My advice for anyone wanting to learn programming is to stay humble and not to
shy away from learning the parts that you don't yet understand or don't think are necessary. That
said, you don't have to be an expert in order to make a contribution - Some companies actually
prefer dirty code that gets shipped out quickly over well structured code that takes months to
develop. Poorly structured code isn't always a bad thing - So, while you're still young, try to work
for companies that benet from this 'quick and dirty' approach but don't get stuck there for too
long! Always try to move forward.
The GigBear
What are some companies that have this approach, out of curiosity?
Jonathan Gros-Dubois University of Queensland
@The GigBear - Digital agencies which produce websites/web systems on behalf of
third-party clients tend to favour 'getting the product out quickly' over 'getting the code
structure right'. I worked for an agency once (briey) - We had to produce a website for
a Coca Cola promotional campaign - They didn't put much focus on code quality
because the website was going to be dismantled in a few months anyway. In general,
you will nd that companies which produce systems on behalf of third-party clients
tend to have lower code quality than companies that build their own stu!. It makes
sense - Think about it; they get more work/money whenever there is an issue with the
system that needs to be xed (so more issues = more money for the agency, therefore
lower code quality is actually an advantage).
Reply Like Edited May 25 at 12:45pm
Ezra Taylor Top Commenter
Jonathan, how do you become a better coder by writing bad code? Also, I have never
heard of a company that wants someone that writes bad code.
View 3 more
Santiago Martn Zubieta Ortiz Top Commenter
I strongly believe that the entry barrier into programming is terribly hard. I had no problem with it
but I know a lot of people who did and who still have.
Concepts such as scopes, objects, functions (parameters, return values, recursivity), variables,
assignment operators, ow control blocks, boolean arithmetic, polymorphism, inheritance, etc.
You get a hold on that and you can use almost any programming language (every one with their
styles and specics though) and then delve into more complex stu! (algorithms, frameworks, etc)
but if you don't, you aren't getting anywhere.
Larene Depopiet
Programming languages are not the hard part. The di"culty today is that you have to learn very
large complex frameworks if you do not want (cannot) write everything yourself. Javascript is not
hard, JQuery is huge. Objective C is not hard, XCode/iOS library is, etc.
Yordan Georgiev Helsinki, Finland
the only profession in the world in which a man could be millions of times more productive that
another
Follow
3
Larene Depopiet
Actually, a bad programmer has negative productivity, and there are other professions
where this is true.
Max Woolf Top Commenter Carnegie Mellon University 2,096 followers
this is so kray kray
Follow
3
David Whitney
Rule #1: If you want someone to fail at something, tell them it's hard.
Learning to speak English or Chinese is hard, but billions of people have accomplished it. So is
learning to write. So is learning to walk, and (surprise!) little children do it.
Do we tell these learners it's hard? No, we encourage them and praise their progress.
Love yourself and have the patience with yourself that you have with your children. Know that there
are tangible, lifelong benets that come from learning this skill. Dene "good enough" and allow
yourself to stop there if you want to.
But don't tell yourself it's hard unless you like failure.
Nimmitha Vidyathilaka Algonquin College
"If you want someone to fail at something, tell them it's hard."
Totally agree.
When I was in twenties I and one of my friends wanted learn computing from the best
computer school in my home country. First both of us had to take an IQ test. We did it
well. Then we had an interview with the "God" of the school. He has a PhD in
Mathematics. He gave me a simple equation to solve. It is eight grade math question.
When I took the pencil to solve the problem, I accidentally drop the pencil. He thought I
am nervous. Then he told me "This course going to be very hard for you". I solve the
equation and got accepted to this super duper school. My friend took little while to
solve the equation and he also got a negative comment from the "God" of the school. I
met one of my teachers in high school and told him the story. He advice me to not to
take the "God" guys comment seriously. I did not attend the super duper school. Went
to US and get a Computer Degree from the US. But, my friend thought he is not good
enough to take the course change his career path.
If I believed the "God" guys comment I am not a computer programmer now.
Reply Like June 16 at 1:35am
Karl Coelho
The thing is, once you know one programming language well, it's super simple to learn others,
The thing is, once you know one programming language well, it's super simple to learn others,
because they pretty all follow the same principles and paradigms. My point, exactly. Learning to
code, for the rst time, will denitely be hard... there's nothing else to it.
p.s. I'm 15 and I am a programmer , I feel proud of myself for crossing the barrier. ^_^
Jason Joyner Top Commenter IPFW
I've found languages are easy after the second one. Once you learn one that' great,
and learning the second language you keep comparing to the rst language. by the
third language you realize you can't do that and it's easy from there.
Follow
Se Ba Sti An RWTH Aachen University
what kind of bullshit is this? bitch, please ... written by a guy that has no clue about software
engineering. People that call themselves programmer after teaching themselves "how to code the
summer after college" are like mechanical engineers after wrenching on their 50ccm moped
Matt Miklic Top Commenter Designer at Automattic
"He"?
Follow
Nathan Loofbourrow Works at DreamWorks Animation
What questions to Google and what code to copy-paste? Why, back in my day we didn't have your
fancy Googles and Stack Overows....
Se Ba Sti An RWTH Aachen University
and that's way I can't take this article neither the author serious, he/she can call
his/herself o"cially script kiddie.
John G Moore Jr Top Commenter
Se Ba Sti An Yeah, but he got paid (sold out to WordPress), so "$cript kiddie" got $kills,
lol.
Cory Logan San Francisco, California
This is incredibly true. Great perspective you've got.
Ulf Byskov Software Consultant at Teamit Oy
My two step take on programming.
1. Understanding the environment (the problem) in which programming is used is often di"cult.
You must understand not only the problem but also the desired solution including its limitations
and side e!ects.
2. Fixing the problem by applying programming is not that hard if you did the rst step
successfully.
Henri Walker Top Commenter Atlanta, Georgia
Like anything it depends on your passion, I taught myself c sharp and now program for my county
government. Learning to program was easy for me because it is something I have always wanted
to do. Yes you will get stuck and frustrated sometime; but you will feel that way with just about
everything that you do. I agree programming isn't for everyone, so if you are doing it just because
you think that someone will o!er you 4 billion for your code, programming is not for you. You have
to have a love for coding. At the same time I must say that just because it is not easy you should
not fear programming. I think it is fun.
Thijs De Paepe PHP Developer at Wijs
Start slow, iterate over every step, redo your steps in a di!erent way, build something you can nd
many tutorials of, look at the di! between tutorial A and tutorial B with similar project, challenge
yourself by adding more advanced code, if it's to hard take a step back, split it up in more steps,
make an analysis before you start with something big/new, always thing about what you need and
what your result needs to be. Start with a language with a simple learning curve that can be as
advanced as you can handle, ones you know a language you know the basics, learning a second
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advanced as you can handle, ones you know a language you know the basics, learning a second
one is much easier.
Anthony M. Sanders Top Commenter
No, it is a question of stubornness, I am more stuborn than the lousey computer. It may drive me
nuts, but I usually out last it. If my code doesn't work the one way, I will nd another trick that
does. No stupid, two-bit hunk of plastic and circuitry is going to out last me. Most of the time.
And speaking of time, the three days I spend chasing one stinking bug is more than made up for
by the times that I try something and it works the rst time. I forget all struggles basking in the
glory of a small programming victory.
Another bug? Oh, no you don't!
Vijay Thirugnanam Top Commenter
Learning to code: a) Understanding the various stacks of algorithms (+ data structures) and design
patterns. b) Understanding the features available in the chosen programming language and
development platform c) Pick up an interesting domain / area to code. My 2 cents as a
programmer.
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