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How I taught myself to code
I first learned to code when I was 14 years old. It was a long time ago. In fact, I was still in high school when my dad got me a subscription for The Code Academy website. My intention at the time was to eventually pursue an engineering career and do something involving computers, but it seemed like too daunting of a task at the time. I couldn’t grasp the concepts. I would read something and tell myself, “I don’t get it. I am not smart enough to understand this.” And so, I put down the book after 3 or 4 pages. After about a year or two of that, my dad was getting frustrated with me not learning something that he thought was important in life and so he decided to buy me an online computer course for $100 a month for a year (or something like that). The lesson fees had to be paid up front. I didn’t think I could do it so I told him “no”. He surprised me by telling me that if *I* couldn’t learn how to code then *no one* would. That scared me into doing it. He told me that he would disown me if I didn’t make the time to do the course, so with a lot of trepidation, I signed up for it.
What resources I used
At the time, I had a few different education resources that I used to learn from and/or teach myself. One of them was a book called “Introduction to Programming with Python 2nd Edition” (from Apress). It was an introductory level book that kind of taught you the fundamentals of programming (booleans, integers, strings and lists). I only really used it as a reference sometimes but I didn’t use it to teach myself. Another one was Khan Academy. I remember watching some videos and then trying to apply what they were doing. Another one was CodeAcademy and Codecademy. I used those two more when I wanted to learn how to do some specific things with Python.
The importance of having a support network
I think what helped me most was having a network of people that I could ask questions to. I could go to my high school computer class and speak with other kids about what I didn’t understand and someone would usually help me out or point me in the right direction. After graduating high school, I attended university because they required that you take a prerequisite course before you can start your major. One of the courses I took required me to use Java and one of the things that I didn’t understand at all was about classes. So, I went to my networking group and asked them for help. One of them knew a little bit about programming so he taught me how to use a program called “Javajs”. After that, everything became much easier. There were always people around me in school (privately) or in my network (publically) who would help me out if I needed it. They helped me not only to become better at the language but also to network more as well.
I think that networking and learning from others is important for everyone. I remember a time when I couldn’t get something done and there was no one in my network who could help me. Sometimes this could be a problem but it doesn’t have to be. This can actually help you mature and grow as a person, which is good.
I believe that the internet has helped me grow as a programmer throughout my career and I hope the same is true for you. I have met many people who have helped me along my way, and I hope that you will too.
–Thomas Stocker
World wide software developer, designer, architect, systems analyst and trainer with 17+ years experience with programming. Loves learning new technologies. Motivated to teach others how to create great products using technology…not just programming languages though they are a big part of his passion.
How to find a mentor
I think one of the best ways to find a mentor is to go to the site called “Code.org”. It’s basically like the website for Codecademy and Code Academy but it focuses more on teaching kids how to program and computing. I recommend all kids who are interested in programming go here. The way they teach you is just so simple that you don’t need anyone’s help or advice if you are too young or too old but still starting off in programming. They have a lot of educational videos and you can even do tests and see how you do. If you are someone who is older and wants to learn how to code, then I recommend that you go to this website because it will help you refresh your memory about basic programming concepts, like variables, for loops, if statements, etc. Plus, they have a lot of interactive activities that make learning so much fun. This website will teach you how to code in different languages, like HTML, CSS, Python, Java and Scratch. It’s basically like a free online course to learn how to program. I think this is a great way to start off if you want to learn how to code and need help learning.
My biggest challenges and how I overcame them
I don’t think I had any challenges when learning how to code. One of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was not letting myself get discouraged. Whenever I couldn’t understand something or whenever I felt like everything was too hard, I would take a step back and just turn off my computer for a little bit. After about 10-20 minutes, when things started to feel less stressful, I would go back at it again and try harder until things finally started to make sense.
I believe in the idea that you don’t actually have to succeed in something. I think that if you can learn enough to be able to overcome any “problem” then you can learn enough for anything else, so if you keep at it and just keep trying, eventually everything will become clear and make sense.
Another of my biggest challenges was taking it seriously and learning as much as possible. I wanted to learn how to code but I felt like I didn’t want to take too much time away from other things so I would only try to learn for one hour per day. After a month, I felt like I didn’t learn very much. It wasn’t until I decided to dedicate myself to it fully that things really took off. So take a day off if you need to, but plan days where you can focus full time on trying new stuff and not getting distracted.
