When Mario meets Programming

I had an interesting conversation over twitter the other day regarding learning. The conversation revolved around using the game of Mario Kart to compare learning. I took it a step further, and tried to apply that same theme towards the state of learning how to program. I think it is an interesting exercise when drawing comparisons between the real and fictitious worlds we live in.

I've expanded on that in a blog post that I wrote.

I think that learning how to code is not for everyone, but for those who enjoy solving problems. If you are a problem solver, like puzzles, and enjoy the satisfaction of figuring out things on your own, then you can definitely learn how to code.

You don't need to be a math wiz, have a CS (computer science) background, or spend every waking minute thinking about code to be a good programming. Programming really revolves around taking an abstract idea and implementing it via syntax to make something appear on a screen.

I think that programming is all about perseverance. Picking a goal, and sticking with it. If you want to learn how to program, you just have to do it.

What are some things that get you stuck when learning how to program? How did you overcome them?

Comments

[Shravan Kumar B]

I read your blog. The idea of how you perceive programming is quite excellent. Thanks for newer perception. :)

like wise how you did, I have put out my perceptions as well. Have a look at it, if u are interested.

ohmyscript.com/2020/07/25/programm...

[Mark Halpin]

I'd agree that programming is like following a process of steps. But what if you don't know the steps? Say you need to develop a feature you've never done before?

[André Matias]

Actualy I've had some problemns to agree so many dependency of libraries, frameworks and packages.
I'm learning about JS and there are many packages that sometimes it make me feel not so much excited to solve problemns with that language.
Sure, I always can make my own solution that library do, maybe with a side project I could get excited again.

By the way, Nice Post.

[Mark Halpin]

Thanks Andre! Yes, learning JavaScript can seem overwhelming, but sticking to the basics definitely helps. You can do so much without the frameworks. What things are you interested in? Maybe writing a program to do a search on something you are familiar with, be it sports, music, food etc. Use a free API, and do something with the fetch api, or other built in web apis which are basic. You can do a lot with them!