Is the programming life for me? (Part 2)
In the last post, we talked about some of the skills needed for getting into the programming space. First, we talked about the importance of problem-solving. And then we went on to discuss adaptability.
One thing I will love to add about adaptability is being okay with asking for help, especially when stuck. I recall that this was an issue for me when I started coding. I’ll be like, “I can figure this out. I’m so close.” And sometimes I’d end up spending a lot more hours trying to figure it out. And most times, I still didn’t figure it out. With time, I began to see that a problem shared is truly half-solved. I know that sounds cliche, but it’s true — at least most of the time. I also discovered that while sharing or stating out loud what the problem is to someone else, the solution somehow became apparent. We’ll talk a bit more about some of the other skills.
- Learning
I believe that it’s very important to understand the best ways that you learn and apply yourself to it consistently. Personally, I’m more of an audio-visual person, so I enjoy watching videos and listening to stuff because things tend to stick more that way. Of course, there are other people that enjoy reading books more, and they comprehend faster that way. I definitely would love to read a lot more than I currently do, but for me, I prefer to watch and listen to videos — at least for now.
Apart from knowing how you learn, it’s also important to be consistent in whatever way that you learn. I like to use the analogy of people picking up a new skill or habit. If you want to work out to get those six-packs, you want to go on a diet, or you want to learn to play the piano or the guitar, there is always that initial dopamine rush. There’s always that motivation and high performance at the beginning. So you could get so excited and probably go announce the start of your new journey publicly on social media, but at some point, it gets hard. Maybe two weeks into hitting the gym, you begin to find the dumbbells unattractive. Then maybe your personal trainer becomes really annoying, and you stop picking their calls. You could dislike eating healthy and prefer to go back to how you were eating before. The point I’m trying to make is that it gets hard to continue at some point. And usually, that period at which it gets hard is what I’ve learned is called “the dip”. Studies have shown that when people are able to scale past this period, it gets easier for them to finish up whatever they plan to do.
- Practice
As much as possible, you want to get your hands dirty — you want to learn by doing and get hands-on. While it’s good to read books, watch videos, and listen to podcasts, you also want to apply yourself to whatever you’re learning. There are tons of videos and other resources on the internet which you can consult, and the good thing about these resources is that they give you the opportunity to follow along. There are GitHub repositories that you can download and in so doing follow along with what the trainer is doing. So as much as possible, take advantage of that.
Next, Google is your friend. Don’t be ashamed to use external resources. In a lot of professions, there is a script that is followed — People know exactly what to do when there’s a task to be done. However, it’s slightly different in programming in that there is no one way to solve a problem. You will find yourself making use of external resources and coming up with the optimal one for your use case. Google, Stack Overflow, GitHub, are all great resources that we use in software development. I literally consider it an art, being able to understand what you’re looking for and going ahead to search it out. There is absolutely no shame in using these resources when the need arises, though this is not to say that you should be totally dependent on them. You will notice, however, that with time and continual use, some things just become second nature.
- Patience
Be patient; take your time. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed. When you think of how many things you have to learn and how many languages are out there. “Do I learn JavaScript, too?”
“Should I learn Ruby? Oh my god, Python!”
“I want to learn a little bit of Android. Maybe I should be thinking of iOS too.”
Just calm down. Take it easy. It’s usually more useful in the long run that you focus on learning something consistently, and then build competence on whatever you learn. The truth is that at the end of the day, all programming languages are just tools. So if you’re able to master and understand how one tool works, learning to use other tools will just be a matter of translating that knowledge.
That said, we have come to the end of this two-part post. I hope this is helpful for those that are new to programming — to decide to take the plunge and for those that have already started — to continue and scale up.
If you have any questions or suggestions, feedback, simply let me know in the comments or send an email to me here.
