Coding Journey Part2

Brandi Sanders — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 02:54:01 +0000

Weeks ago I registered for a class thinking it would be about the psychology of technology, but I quickly realized that this was a class meant for introducing you to the basics of coding and data analysis. This was absolutely terrifying for me because I had tried to learn coding on many different occasions and it always turned into me being extremely discouraged and angry. However this was a much better experience for me, as I explained in my last blog post, and while there were definitely days where I felt angry and discouraged (today being one of those) this was such a better experience. I was actually able to learn, share and connect with people and am so proud of myself with what I have learned. It is so interesting the things you can learn and to do and find with this new skill. 50 days of code was a helpful exercise for keeping me involved in learning.

There were many things that I really enjoyed and I found that, especially with coding, I learned the process better when there was an activity to do with a goal and actions to achieve this goal. I had a really hard time learning the basics because I would overthink and not understand how the simple code builds into more, and how when you first learn you learn the building blocks that make code into something more. For example when I was learning about boolean expressions I found it much easier to understand and funner to work on if I made it into a truth or dare game instead. Another problem that I really enjoyed working on was turning my words then sentences into pig latin using if then statements and functions. When I was learning both of these I had a lot of trouble understanding the purpose of little bits of code and when I gave them a goal to achieve their functions and purpose became clearer.

Another #50daysofcode that I was really proud of making and taught me more about the process of coding was my madlibs code, my hugs and kisses counter and finding out which Hogwarts house you are in based on three characteristics (even though J.K Rowling is a real big Dursley right now). The madlib problem was extremely fun to work on and it taught me about inputs and string methods, this really showed me how strings can be put together and the usefulness of inputs. It was so cool when I did this for the first time I got so excited that I created something and thought it was super cute and fun to work on, interact with and see the result. The hugs and kisses counter is a simple little block of code that helped me understand for loops and the usefulness of the computer being able to count and work faster than a person at figuring out how many x and o were just randomly jammed in. The Hogwarts house finder was one of my favorites to work on, I was really able to learn what if, elif, and else statements could be used for and how this code processes the information given. This was also really fun to work on because it felt big and a little more complicated than previous code I worked on.

This way of practicing code has really benefited me and my slow start to coding. When we learned enough code to look into data sets I was so intrigued with all the different things you could find and learn. Making the graphs was extremely informative and I had no idea how much you could play around with and learn from all the different types of data sets out there. This has been a challenging but rewarding start to my coding journey, with still more to learn.

Why it has Taken me Five Years to Learn Basic Python

Brandi Sanders — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 21:08:24 +0000

Coding is something that my partner is extremely passionate about, so about five years ago I began my own coding journey. That ended pretty fast. While I love listening to my partner explain the projects he has been working on and finding and fixing problems, I really wanted to be able to have deeper conversations and to have a better understanding about the area he is passionate about. But when I tried it, it was just something that I could not comprehend or even understand how anyone could find it fun or interesting.

When I started to learn code everything felt so overwhelming but at the same time stupidly simple. I couldn’t understand that I was learning the basics so I could eventually start building. It all seemed so silly. How was I going to build something that just prints out ‘hello world’, why wouldn’t I just type hello world, and what was even the point? The levels of frustration I was feeling with myself lead me to have a negative mindset that was keeping me from learning and eventually lost the motivation to learn.

The class I have been taking has given me some perspective and allows me to reflect on myself whenever I first started my coding journey years ago. Knowing what I know now I realize that I had too high of expectations for myself. When I first started I didn’t have any experience whatsoever but I had expected myself to fully understand all the basics and be able to write fun little things within a few weeks. Not only did I have too high of expectations but they were also unrealistic. I didn't allow myself time to learn, or give myself the kindness when I didn’t understand, or allow myself to fail which I have now learned is a major part of learning code. I didn’t understand that failures taught me more than what it meant about my skills especially that early on.

I feel extremely fortunate with my experience this time around learning. I have a professor who encourages us to actively participate and learn, I have a class of peers who give me a sense of community and help me understand it’s okay to not understand and it's always okay to ask for help, and I have a partner who is always excited to help and talk with me about what I’ve learned. I think another of my biggest challenges when I was learning was feeling like so many people learn to code on their own or from a bootcamp so why couldn’t I be one of those people too. This new experience has shown me that I can be one of those people, I just needed an encouraging environment, where I could communicate with people on the same skill level as me and to also be patient and nicer to myself.

DEV Community: Brandi Sanders

Coding Journey Part2

Why it has Taken me Five Years to Learn Basic Python