why is coding so hard to learn and does it get easier all these amazing engineering
leaders seem to have it all figured out are they just Geniuses or what is the secret
today oh geez okay let's just you know today I'm going to be covering with you why exactly
when you are first learning how to code it can feel so difficult so challenging and of
course learning anything new comes with a lot of challenges but for some reason when we are
learning how to code whether it be your first programming language or even if you've been a
software engineer for quite some time I mean it definitely gets easier with time there is
hope for you that is just starting out but why is it so hard to grasp and I want to share with
you today my thoughts around it okay also can you believe in literally less than one week less than
one week actually in a few days the interact conference is happening which I am so excited
about I'm curious to know who has signed up for it as you know it's a completely free virtual
conference that is happening on October 25th this is a conference I went to last year and I still
keep in touch with a lot of the speakers that were there they are engineering leaders they have some
amazing advice to give I felt like I took away from the conference a lot of insight a lot of
knowledge but honestly most importantly in my opinion is a lot of inspiration in how I can
grow my career so whether you are just starting out in your Tech Career or you are an engineering
leader yourself there is so much value that you will gain from this conference some of the
panel topics include connecting your Dev teams work to the business bottom line being a leader
in uncertain times how to treat devs like human beings and the science of building products for
emerging Industries also you know we all love this part of conferences which is giveaways there are
going to be a ton of different giveaways here lots of prizes and also too there's going to be a live
event chat so you can connect with others that are attending the conference or other speakers and
make sure to come say hi to me there are going to be some incredible engineering leaders speaking at
this event some of them include ruckmany Reddy who is the SVP of platform engineering Smooty Patel
who is the head of engineering and charity Majors who is the CTO and co-founder now this is just
listing a few there are so many others that you can connect with which is really exciting so if
you haven't already click the link down below my bio it's completely free happening in a few days
and leave a comment if you will be attending so I can look out for you okay let's get back into it
okay we are back now back in action and it's way more peaceful and quiet just the way I like it
let's get back to it though why is coding so hard to learn I want to share with you a little story
on this when I first started learning how to code there are really different I discovered
there are different kind of waves you go through throughout the learning to code process at first
there's this Terror there's a sphere am I going to be able to do it and you question yourself a
lot then comes this almost honeymoon phase where you're taking coding tutorials you're like wow
this is amazing thinking of all the projects you can build how you are going to be the next
Mark Zuckerberg and just take over the world and it's just like this euphoric moment when
you first start learning to code and are taking tutorials and everything's going pretty smoothly
you're telling your friends about it and they're all really impressed that you're gonna be a coder
it's really cool and then you think you know what I've taken a few coding tutorials let me try
building something on my own this is where that that Peak hits of that honeymoon and you start
going downhill very quickly meaning you start building a project on your own and you quickly
realize that wow this is a lot harder than when I was following a tutorial and it's one of those
things that you realize I don't know as much as I thought I did so then you start Google searching
searching for other topics searching for other ideas maybe you even end up in what is called
maybe you even end up in what is known as tutorial hell which essentially is you just keep on doing
tutorial after tutorial this point usually comes after the honeymoon phase when you should
be focusing on building your own projects but you just have that fear of the what if and the unknown
and maybe you've even tried to build projects on your own and just gone in stock and didn't know
where to go long story short there is definitely highs and lows and very high highs and very low
lows when you are learning to code the funny thing is it's not just when you are starting to learn to
code it does get better as you get more experience because you have the toolkit to learn new things
and learn them quicker however there definitely is times where you will still face imposter syndrome
even 10 20 years in and you pick up something new it's way easier because you had that toolkit but
you still have those feelings so going back to it why is coding so hard to learn I'm going to break
it down to you as far as some of the reasons behind why is the first one is it's a new way
of thinking for many people and I can attest to myself who didn't pay attention in high school
really to math or Sciences I just didn't seem quote unquote cool at the time now I wish I did
and no one really pushed me to so in turn I didn't have to I didn't have that side of my brain that
logic side of my brain that is used in programming that wasn't a strong suit of mine to begin with so
as much as I was learning how to code I was also learning how to think in a new way how
to problem solve in a new way and I think that is something that a lot of people discover when they
are starting out in their coding journey is that this is a whole new way of thinking and problem
solving another thing that happens way more often than not is that feeling of overwhelmed kind of
like I am in this rain right now trying to walk the dogs but when you start learning to code or
learning something new in Tech the first thing you will quickly realize is there is a lot to learn
there are so many resources out there so much out there and it's overwhelming for me I remember I
would start learning you know react and then view came out and I was like or it was the hot thing
at the time it's like oh my gosh I need a switch and you know then something else came out and it's
that feeling that you're never learning enough and you are first of all learning enough it's just you
need to take it day by day and I think one of the most important things is whatever you pick
just stick to it until you feel pretty proficient in it it's easy to jump around and then in turn
not really learn anything okay another reason why coding can be really difficult to learn is coding
is hard to teach and a lot of times you will be taking coding tutorials and maybe you really look
up to these people but they're not teaching it in the best way possible let me rewind that a bit
maybe they're teaching it in the best way possible but not in the way that works best for you and I
think half the battle is really finding someone an instructor or a mentor that can speak the way you
understand if that makes sense everyone learns so differently some more visually than others and at
first it takes a while getting used to what works best for you for example for me when I started I
completely ignored the documentation I was more a visual person I wanted to see tutorials see things
moving on screen and I do not recommend at all ignoring the documentation that came to bite me
in the butt later on but the point is whatever way that works best for you to start learning
do that even if it might not be the quote-unquote correct way or the way people are suggesting
sometimes in order just to start something new you need to do what you are comfortable with or
what you know works best for you and if you don't know what works best for you that's also a part of
the reason I think that a lot of people struggle with learning to code is because they're learning
how to learn which sounds kind of funny but it really is a skill in itself another thing that
happens more often than not is we learn too fast when you go online you see all these articles of
how I became a full stack engineer in you know two months or how I landed my first job in two
weeks or I don't know just ridiculous things like that and it puts subconsciously a lot of pressure
on ourselves that we need to learn everything so quickly but what that really does is we end up not
learning anything because we don't learn anything well another thing that really didn't work well
for me when I was first learning and still to this day I need to have I'm someone who needs to have
support and everyone's different a lot of people I've seen some incredible programmers who are
self-taught and never had to ask another human a question but just you know went on stackable
they asked another human but they just went on stack Overflow and asked that way I am someone
who gives me all of the support you got let me you know take all your advice and insight and
when I was learning to code I actually hired a mentor I hired someone a tutor to sit down with
me once a week I was building a react project and I was actually working at the time as a software
developer very early on in my career but I was still learning react I was working more in the
back end side of things and I was like I just want someone who is an expert in the front end expert
with react to sit down with me once a week and just like soak up all their knowledge now maybe
this isn't feasible for you know some people I'm not saying to have to you have to go and
spend your money on a mentor or a tutor for me it was completely an amazing investment because
I learned so quickly so much information because I was able to have that one-on-one with someone
who's an expert all right let's talk about it you know it's coming this word that's so overused
imposters but it's true it really can slow down your learning A lot of times we question are we
good enough are we worth it am I skilled enough to learn this new thing and it can really slow
down your learning to the point where it almost freezes you that you stop learning for a while
because you think maybe this isn't for me this is for you if you want it and it takes time as
I mentioned earlier it takes a lot of time and it's one of those things that you just have to
keep on repeating it's like a muscle I always say the more you practice the stronger you will get
okay those are some things that I think really some insights into what makes coding difficult
to learn but at the end of the day it's one of those things that I really believe anyone can
do it and maybe to varying degrees depending on your background and things but at least
learn the basics build some really interesting projects and get a lot of value out of it also
if you haven't already hit that subscribe button show me some love and support I love you all so
much and genuinely I am so passionate about making videos to help you and on that note if
there are videos you want me to cover topics you want me to cover leave in the comments
it's how I get my my ideas of what you want to see and I'll see you all soon thanks everyone