The Best Way To Learn Programming

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[SimGunther]

1. Draw a circle
2. Draw the rest of the owl

[JesseGilbride]

"The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried."

[xTriplexS]

Can confirm. Throughout my school years, I learned more when my teachers made intentional mistakes and explain why doing that was a mistake

[hansdampf]

How I learn programming is:
- I want to build something
- I learn about the thing I want to build and it’s surroundings
- I try to find out how to build the things I need
- I learn a ton of (at first) useless half-correct things along the way
-I build the thing (or I fail to build it)

[xiongbenjamin]

I studied programming for two years and didn’t understand. I learned better by looking at the end result. Then I broke each component of the architecture down to its simplest. Started with the end and worked my way to the start. Kind of like trying to build a tv for the first time by taking apart all the parts of the tv and understanding each component.

[Evilanious]

I think there's room for both. Showing a final result can give an idea of how a concept is supposed to work. It builds understanding but not skill. Just trying stuff until it works builds resilience and skill but if you don't understand why what you made works you're missing out. You might also keep doing stuff in inconvenient ways because your working in a way that's locally optimal but globally subpar. So I think there needs to be a split of 30% new concepts cleanly introduced and 70% unguided or lightly guided practice.

I still didn't see anyone else teach like Jeffrey Way from Laracasts. His approach is pure learning. He builds on the screencast the wrong version, shows you the error, then fixes it (kinda), shows you the way, and then improves the fix again. He is just brilliant.

[Atrain]

It’s important to see the final result when you are first learning. This is because when learning something new, most times you never understand the “why”. The end result gives you an answer to this “why”. Then when you dive into the code and learn more about the individual parts, the “how” becomes clear. Next thing you know you have a solid end to end knowledge of an application.

[selewin]

How I learned it is to do the step by step solution and then start figuring out what means what. And tweaking things try and adjust the solution to fit my current problem better. After a few of those you have a general understanding of how things work and when you do the proper way of learning then it's a lot faster. But this keeps my interest high

[sods]

What has helped me more in learning to program is getting to the point where I have just enough knowledge to know what I need to look for if I get stuck, and to be able to properly translate the code into english that makes sense. When I first started out, no one said in any of the classes I had about it or any of the videos I watched, some of the most important advice which is to look at the documentation for the language you are using. Being able to understand what something is doing is far more helpful than just being told "use this because it's correct". It also helps to realise that translating the shorthand into the full phrase helps you to understand it, like in for loops when an "i" is used, if you don't know what "i" is, or what "for" does but you get told "this is for iterating over data" it can be very confusing, and is far more helpful to say "the i stands for iterator, and reading what a for loop does goes something like this 'for each i (iterator), do these instructions'"

[thehibbi]

Why would I rebuild X?! Elon dominates the market, there is no way I could compete with him

[Manda]

Issue with programming is that you can easily struggle, waste time, have mental anguish and not learn anything new.

[Rose-eche]

I agree 100%. Most learning comes from making assumptions about a system and doing things that rely those assumptions, and looking back at those assumptions to reasess your understanding until you stop failing. True understanding does not come from memorisation but from making assumptions and repeatedly interrogating them until your understanding grows to account for most nuances and edge cases

[MyCodingDiary]

Your energy and enthusiasm are contagious. Love it!

[GloriousReign]

As someone learning to code this 💯 facts . And you have to read the damn docs. .

[tongpoo]

This is correct and it applies to a lot of stuff, it's how I learned Solidworks really quickly. Went through a youtube tutorial series, and I'd always pause the video and try to draw/model the thing myself, then after I was done, I'd watch the professor do it. The first part was where I really learned my way around the software in-depth and independent problem solving, then watching the professor do it after showed me where I messed up, best practices, and shortcuts and techniques I could've used.

[shoaib_akhtar_]

I have never seen such an educator who goes to the underpinnings of learning, eager to follow you to learn more.

[TheDmviper]

One way to get understanding is through failure. You let reality tell you you're wrong over and over again until things start to work. And the hope is that things work because you understand what you did.

Another way that I honestly think is better and almost never addressed is by starting with the right answer and trying to break it. You look at each step and think of all the ways you could do it differently and then see if they work or why they don't. Basically, you go backwards in an attempt to prove to yourself the "correct" version is actually correct.

[xandercorp]

This has an element of truth, but is dangerous to follow to an extreme conclusion. Throw them in the deep end, sure, but make sure they have working arms and legs first.

The first method is great for getting up to speed on specifics when you know what you're doing generally, the second builds character - but only if you have those basics down first. You have to build up both parts of your personality, passive and active motivation and perception.

[hitbox]

exactly that. My mentor told me what an array is, different data types for variables/functions, what functions and parameters are, how to create a class, how to build a constructor for that class and so on and so on .... In the end he told me "and now, here is an actual project im working on right now, i can't be bothered to do it myself, but i think for you it would be the perfect training case to work on".

I can now do this stuff with my eyes closed.

Edit : I knew most of the stuff i mentioned earlier before my mentor got into those things with me, but the bottom line is, that i learned those things "for the sake of repeating it", i never really got into using those principles on a daily basis. Through him i developed a natural understanding on how to dissect the amount of states within a function for example, or why it is so important to use Type- over JavaScript if your building actual React components. These are lessons you are not going to figure out yourself without hands on experience, a lot of Junior Dev's write singular functions and write everything in global lets- or constants, let alone useful documentation. Properly using function/variable scopes and reusable class components is an important lesson.