Doing the challenging stuff isn't as hard as not doing them and being stuck

Afroz Alam — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 06:46:07 +0000

This article isn't coding-specific but for every aspect of life. You can relate this to learning to code too

The idea is the more someone takes on the hard tasks, the lighter and fulfilled they feel. Conversely, if someone skips hard tasks, the more stressed they will feel the next time a task of same difficulty appears.

By hard tasks, I mean - the challenges in the process of your growth, the tasks which demands change or any stressful situation in life.
For e.g.- Breaking the ice, rejection ,disappointments ,jobs requiring heavy work etc.

Why skipping hard tasks is costing you more

Life is full of these hard tasks. You have to face them either prepared or unprepared. Not facing them or skipping them can make you feel relaxed but life will throw more of them towards you as you move in life. And every time, you will feel overwhelmed by them. Instead you can face them one by one, building confidence and strength. This confidence will help you face later challenges in life. The difficulty of the situation will remain the same but your response will be different.

Accepting Hard Tasks is the only way to secure your peace for future

You don't always need to fix a problem as they appear. But you can decide that you will fix it sooner or later. As they say "the art of not being ready but doing it anyway, will take you far in life." Now imagine doing it again after doing it unprepared. Obviously, you will more calm doing it second time, but for that you have to do it once.

Remember when you made your first coffee or tea, first day at university, first time taking injection, writing the program of swapping two variables without using third variable. And look at you doing the same stuff again today. When did it felt more calming and easy to finish ?. Of course you do it better now, but to reach here you have to start in the past.
You also build confidence with facing challenge. And you don't actually get this confidence skipping the hard path.

So in short, Choosing the hard path is the only practical way to live relaxed and confident in life.

You either stress and fear challenges forever or break the fear once and for all. In fact, we do this without realizing that we are growing. So next time a demanding task shows up just remember it's not a life threatening attack(i hope so), deciding to face it will not shatter you. When hard times appear, we do say to ourselves that "I can't think a way out of it" but you still manage to overcome it. So, hardships will come as long as we live, but every hardship prepares us for what's coming in future.
So when new challenges come - face them, remember this day will be gone soon , you are closer to your goal than you imagine, what will this new challenge will teach me?? , you are going to feel lighter when you face this challenge .

You can think of coding problems the same as the hardships of our lives , we face them , learn and improve .

Thanks for the read, bye for now

Coding Isn't Hard , It's Just Unfamiliar

Afroz Alam — Sun, 31 May 2026 12:33:14 +0000

Every beginner struggles when they start their coding journey, but what I’ve realized will completely change how people look at it. Let's break it down point by point:

1. You should not worry about getting stuck
It is completely fine to struggle to make things make sense on your first attempt. Not every programming problem needs to be solved within an hour or a day. It's okay to stay stuck for a while as a beginner.

2. Why is it normal to get stuck?
As humans, we are not born with computers, and logic is not inherited at birth. Coding concepts are new to us—nearly all of them. That's why they don't make sense the first time, and that is why coding feels so hard.

3. The solution is letting the concepts sink in
All we need to do is get familiar with these programming concepts so they stop feeling alien to us. Coding is scary and lonely because we aren't dealing with anything familiar:

The language is unfamiliar
The logic is unfamiliar
The tools are unfamiliar
The concepts (like OOP or design patterns) are unfamiliar
Even the environment is unfamiliar

Because of this, coding is really a matter of how fast you can get comfortable with a concept, rather than how tough the concept itself is. In simple words, it is just a matter of time, patience, and repetition.

4. It can be time-consuming, but it will be worth it
Getting familiar with any concept requires more than just a tutorial or documentation. You should let the concept come to you naturally through a deeper understanding; that is when it becomes less scary and more familiar.

Programming is not a lot of complex stuff (logic and syntax) connecting to make a complex system (an app or a service). It is simply very unfamiliar concepts connecting to make a very unfamiliar system.

5. Coding requires a different approach
Not every subject is the same, and not every subject can be excelled in the same manner. For example, take math—you cannot excel at math the way you do with a theoretical subject. You have to solve numerical and practical problems to get a command over the concepts you've learned.

Similarly, coding cannot be learned just through documentation or tutorials. You need a mindset shift, documentation, conceptual learning, and active project building to get where you want to go.

DEV Community: Afroz Alam

Doing the challenging stuff isn't as hard as not doing them and being stuck

Coding Isn't Hard , It's Just Unfamiliar