Everyone says learning to code is fun.
They talk about “building cool projects,” “landing your first dev job,” and “writing elegant code.”
But here’s the hard truth:
Most days, it’s confusing, frustrating, and full of doubt.
And that’s completely normal.
Because learning to code isn’t just about syntax, it’s about patience, failure, and perspective.
The Early Struggle Nobody Warns You About
When you start coding, you imagine you’ll be building apps like the ones in tutorials.
But instead, you stare at a screen for hours wondering why your loop won’t run or why everything breaks when you “just change one line.”
You’ll Google the same error 10 times.
You’ll read the same Stack Overflow answer over and over.
You’ll copy a snippet that works and have no idea why it works.
That’s not failure.
That’s literally how every single developer learns.
Tutorials Won’t Save You
We all go through the “tutorial phase.”
You watch YouTube, follow along, and everything works perfectly until you try to build something on your own.
Then… nothing makes sense.
That’s the moment when most people quit.
Because they think, “I’m just not good at coding.”
But the truth is...
You don’t learn by watching someone else code; you learn by getting stuck and figuring your way out.
The Plateau Phase (And Why It’s a Good Thing)
There’s a weird middle stage nobody talks about.
You’re not a beginner anymore, but you don’t feel advanced either.
You can build things… but still get lost in someone else’s codebase.
That phase feels like you’re not improving.
But actually, you are.
You’re building intuition, that quiet skill that lets you read code, predict bugs, and make cleaner decisions.
It’s invisible progress.
And it only shows up if you keep going.
What You Don’t See on LinkedIn
People post, “Just got my first job as a developer 💪🏻”
What they don’t post is the 8 months of self-doubt before that.
The nights were spent debugging.
The moments they thought of quitting.
The imposter syndrome that never really goes away.
If you’re in that phase, frustrated, questioning if this path is for you, remember:
The ones who make it aren’t the smartest.
They’re just the ones who didn’t stop.
Real Learning Looks Like This
✅ Breaking something that used to work
✅ Searching for answers for hours
✅ Realizing you misunderstood something basic
✅ Fixing it and understanding why
That’s growth.
That’s learning to code.
It’s not glamorous, but it’s real.
And that’s what turns beginners into developers.
What Helped Me Most
A few small habits changed everything for me:
- Build small projects. Stop waiting for the “big idea.” Just build anything.
- Write bad code. You’ll write cleaner code next month.
- Read other people’s code. It’s like time-traveling into someone’s brain.
- Take breaks. Sometimes walking away fixes more bugs than staying up late.
Learning to code is a marathon, not a hackathon.
Final Thoughts (From One Developer to Another)
If you’re struggling to learn, please know you’re not behind.
There’s no timeline, no finish line, and no single “right way” to learn.
You just need to keep coding.
One bug, one project, one lesson at a time.
Every developer you admire was once where you are tired, lost, and wondering if they’ll ever “get it.”
You will.
Just don’t stop showing up.
Because the hard truth is…
Learning to code is messy, but it’s worth every line you write 💻.
Wishing you all the best on your coding journey, friends 💙.
| Thanks for reading! 🙏🏻 I hope you found this useful ✅ Please react and follow for more 😍 Made with 💙 by Hadil Ben Abdallah |
  
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Top comments (80)
Gonna leave my two cents here... XD
I have been "learning to code" for about 2 years now. I am in a continuous state of being lost and confused. But if I look back from when I knew nothing to now, well that is the only comparison I have.
It's easy to get frustrated thinking about the skills you haven't acquired yet. It's easy to tell yourself you have failed because you're not some high-falootin' database admin.
But try to explain the concept of MVC to someone that's never coded before. Or explain css keyframes to grandma. Or tell your friends about the virtual server you built in the cloud that hosts all your apps.
You're not a failing. You are barely beginning. 🦚 Right when you want to cry and give up is exactly the time to not do that. (That's not to say don't take an occasional break from the keyboard lol)
Thanks for sharing and being a real human. I so much hate linked in and TikTok and all of that "im so perfect" nonsense, and I am repulsed by Facebook. Everyone is scared to show imperfection. I say it builds trust. "I know you a real one because I watched the struggle."
Wow, this is such a powerful comment. 😍 I felt every word of it. That “continuous state of being lost” perfectly describes what real learning feels like, uncomfortable but necessary.
And you’re absolutely right, showing imperfection builds trust and connection. Thanks for sharing your honest perspective. You’re definitely one of the real ones.💙
Keep going, you’ve already come so far. 💪🏻
You as well!!!! 🦄
Nice. Very nice.
Thanks for this post, my two cents
After 30+ years of coding
Thank you so much for sharing this 😍 Hearing it from someone with 30+ years of experience is incredibly grounding. It’s a powerful reminder that self-doubt isn’t a beginner problem; it’s a developer problem.
And I love what you said: "prove first, improve later". That’s exactly how real coding works. Start messy, get clarity, and then shape it into something better.
Your perspective really adds depth to the conversation. Grateful you took the time to share it 💙
I'm at 50+ years in and I agree totally.
Wow 😍 hearing that from someone with 50+ years of experience truly means a lot. Thank you 🙏🏻
It’s amazing how this journey keeps teaching us, no matter how long we’ve been on it.
Your perspective adds so much weight to the conversation. 🔥
Yeah, at first, I'm focused on making things do what they need to, and people comment on my code during live streams. I don't mind, it's my method and it primarily works for me.
alot of self-doubt during my learning journey but what no one told me is that, after I landed my first job, another wave of horror would come and would wash away those who aren't resilient enough.
I remember when I landed my first job as a junior and oh boy, everything was a mess.
Everything that I self-taught myself was rarely or just not used at all.
My colleagues kept pulling out tricks and stunts that surprised me every time.
I swear I thought I knew everything but the real world isn't like that, you learn to do things differently to what you were taught, I kept doing things wrong, I was insulted, beat up verbally and I was starting to self-doubt myself for the second time - questioning if this is the right decision.
That was of course, before I knew AI was a thing, the time when I thought an AI writing a single line of code that actually compiled is comical.
Thank you so much for sharing this, seriously. What you described is something almost no one talks about openly, yet so many developers go through it. That “second wave” of doubt after landing the first job hits harder than people expect. You go in thinking you’re prepared… then suddenly the real world feels like a completely different universe.
And you’re right, the things we self-teach often don’t map 1:1 to production code, team workflows, or the tricks experienced devs pull out of nowhere. It’s overwhelming, and it’s painful when it shakes your confidence like that.
But the fact that you pushed through insults, confusion, and the pressure of a professional environment says a lot about your resilience. Most people don’t make it past that stage; you did.
And yeah, the world before AI feels like another lifetime 😂
Now it’s less about knowing everything and more about knowing how to learn, adapt, and leverage tools instead of suffering alone.
Truly appreciate you opening up about this. It’s the kind of honesty that helps others feel less alone in their own journey. 💙
You’re telling the comforting version of the truth, but you’re still sugarcoating it. Learning to code isn’t just messy or frustrating. It’s a long grind where you routinely feel stupid, hit walls you can’t brute force and question whether you’re wired for this at all. The only people who get through it are the ones who accept that discomfort as the job, not the obstacle. Tutorials, motivation, feel good quotes none of that substitutes for sitting with problems longer than is comfortable and building things that initially suck. If people internalize that early, the whole journey gets a lot more realistic and a lot less dramatic.
You make a really important point, and I agree. The discomfort is the job. No motivation quote or tutorial can replace the hours of sitting with a problem that makes you feel clueless. That’s honestly the part nobody prepares you for.
My intention wasn’t to sugarcoat it but to remind people they’re not broken for feeling that way. The grind, the doubt, the “why am I not getting this?” moments, they’re all part of the path.
Thanks for adding this perspective. It’s a tough truth, but it’s a needed one.
Writing this article already shows your persistence and dedication, just like learning to code, and the result is clear: you have succeeded and gained recognition.
Thank you so much, that really means a lot. 😍 Writing this piece actually reminded me of how messy the process still is, even after years of coding. The persistence part never really ends, we just learn to get more comfortable with the chaos.
👏👏👏👏👏
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
This article is very real and motivating. It shows that struggles and mistakes are part of learning and continuing is more important than being perfect.
I’m really glad that came through! Perfection is such a trap when learning to code, it took me a while to realize that progress > perfection every single time. The messy moments are usually where the real growth happens.
Hard truths nobody told me:
So true. These are the things nobody prepares you for early on.
The more time I spend in the field, the more I realize how much of the job is about people, clarity, and navigating existing systems.
Coding is still the fun part, but communication, alignment, and the willingness to improve what’s already there… that’s what really moves careers forward.
Thanks for sharing these reminders. 🙌🏻
Great article!
I’d go as far as saying that the same applies for pretty much anything: replace coding with “building your own startup” and you’ll give me a great remedy for my own struggle.
Learning coding requires a lot of courage: to dig through the bits that are confusing, to look at someone else’s code, to pick up a new scary tool, to apply for jobs or build something yourself.
But if you do find that courage, you’ll discover that software is built by people who’s learning as they go, rebuilding it over and over as they discover flows with the previous implementation and starting from scratch more often than they’d be comfortable to admit.
That’s a great perspective 😍 and you’re absolutely right. This mindset applies way beyond coding. Whether it’s building a startup, switching careers, or learning any difficult skill, the uncertainty and the courage required are almost identical.
I love how you described the courage part: digging through confusion, facing other people’s code, trying intimidating tools, and putting yourself out there. Those small acts of bravery are what actually move you forward.
And the truth you mentioned about software being built by people who are constantly learning, rewriting, fixing old mistakes, and starting over… that’s the part beginners rarely see. It’s comforting to know that even experienced developers are figuring things out as they go.
Thank you for sharing this 💙
Very nice article!
You're welcome 💙 So glad you liked it 😍
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