3 Tips To Successfully Teach Yourself To Code
Teaching yourself to code is hard even though there are tons of resources and tutorials that can get you started in your language of choice. The following tips will make it easier to learn your first programming language:
1. Play with all the things
Play with the sample code in your tutorial, don’t just read it. Install the development tools you need, type in your code and run it to see what happens. Actually take the time to type and understand each line, don’t copy and paste. Run the code examples even if it seems obvious so you’ll understand and retain the knowledge better. Make changes to the sample code and predict the result, then and run the modified code and see if you got it right.
2. Break code down to make it easier to understand
When you’re looking at sample code and it seems lengthy or complex, just break it down and understand one piece at a time. Focus on a few statements at a time and try to run a small section to see what happens. It’s good to test and experiment, even if you get error messages you’re learning something.
3. To test your skills, pick a simple project and give it a deadline
When thinking of a project to put your shiny new programming skills to use, you may be tempted to come up with a grand vision. Maybe you like games and want to make something like World of Warcraft, Borderlands, or Assassins Creed. I love your ambition but even an experienced developer would be overwhelmed. Start with something simple like Breakout or Snake. Make a task list for the requirements, rules, and logic you want to have your first version and give yourself a deadline to complete the work. Test your program as you complete each task and celebrate the victories.
Bonus Tip: When code gets frustrating, sleep on it
Programming can get frustrating when you expect the code to work a certain way but you get incorrect results or an error. Sometimes you may feel like you can’t get the code to work right no matter what you do. When all else fails, give it time or sleep on it.
I’ve been programming for many years and occasionally get stuck like this. If I’m not moving forward for more than 15 minutes and start to feel frustrated, I take a break and come back after a few hours or the next day. Whatever approach I was trying before will be out of mind so when I start to working on the code again my assumptions are gone and I’ll easily figure out what was wrong.
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