Introduction
Now an article written from a beginner about the topic might sound ridiculous but hear me out before you write me off.
If you learnt how to program in the past decade think about how you learnt and how long did it take you. Did you have to sift through hundreds of articles and videos from people claiming to know the best way to learn? Maybe you read many articles that stated that you had to do this specific step to get ahead.
I am sure we have all spent time on YouTube where there are countless "influencers" claiming that they had a course that could take you from a "Zero to Hero". These "influencers" sometimes claim to be a ex-engineer at a FAANG company even though they probably spent only a few months at said company. How many jobs did you ever do in the past that after a few months you were expert enough to tell random people on the internet that you had all the answers on the topic? Then why listen to these people?
Now I don't claim to know anything about programming (I am still learning C, btw) but I do know a lot about learning since it is my favorite thing to do. I am tired of the countless videos and articles that waste our time while we are just trying to learn something that we are passionate about. Most of this content is created just so they can feel better about themselves or to make a quick buck off beginners anyways.
Here are the first two tips that I have for you but more will follow. I don't want to keep you from programming for too long.
Tips
If you made it this far then you either just jumped to this section (You most likely will never learn to program for lack of attention span, I am joking, maybe) or you have shown you are serious to learn.
Tip One
My first tip is to quit watching videos and article right now (well after this article if course) and focus on learning a language. Since you know nothing (John Snow), you have the inability to know what content is great or BS. You probably still search daily for the top book or course to learn a language or even what language to learn. I have listed a couple creators that I trust that don't spend half their content trying to sell you a masterclass to something they haven't even mastered. A jr-level dev with a masterclass is like a pre-med grad teaching surgery. Read the documentation for your language or watch enough of a tutorial to get the fundamentals of programming and then build something tiny and tinker around.
Tip Two
Anyone that tells you there is only one way to learn or you need to use a specific tool needs to be written off. Look at any three respected programmer and I doubt they all use the same tools and languages. I am the type that likes minimal tools that I can learn everything about and learn difficult topic out of the gate. I do this because I like a challenge and if not challenge I will get bored and quit. This is why I decided to learn C/C++ and my "IDE" is neovim. I will create an article later to explain the rational thinking about my choices from the view of a "professional" learner.
Take a weekend to play around with a few editors and see which one you like the best assuming you have picked your language already. I had jumped through many editors before settling with neovim including Visual Studio, VS Code, CLion, and Emacs (we all have to hit rock-bottom at first ⛪🙏). If the editor supports your language then it does not matter. The point is to get writing code as fast as possible.
Word of caution though, if you are a tinker like me you might want to stay away from vim (or VS Code plugins) or you might lose a month of learning time as you configure everything. I mean I did deep learn my editor and lua so I cannot complain too much. If you want to still use vim or neovim then use kickstart for vim and leave the configuring alone for now.
I know this tip has ballooned but this is such a huge one because so many people get stuck choosing their tools and language and forget to just learn. Choose and tool and language and stick to it. Please do not waste time chasing the new language or framework (I am looking at you JS/React devs *spits on the ground*). If you start learning a framework before you learn the language you might as will use wix or WordPress (hosted on WPEngine of course, might get sued now🤞.) for your websites.
Conclusion
Now I made it my best effort to make this article as entertaining as possible(I know I failed) and to offend as many of you as possible. Most of the jabs were from past experiences honestly. But the only thing I want you to leave here with is that you just need to start programming and quit worrying about making mistakes or if you are learning the right tool or language. Set realist goals and make sure you set daily milestones because you have no idea how much that will boost your confidence no matter how small of a goal.
Don't let any of these "influencers" on YouTube tell you how to learn. You know yourself enough to know how you learn the best so find resources that work the best for you. I am not saying you shouldn't listen to anything they say but be mindful that if the list of affiliate links under their videos are longer than the transcript then filter that info.
I have listed some creators that I follow that I respect and have a track record of actually creating something besides thumbnails and AI article. If you know of more I will gladly add them to my next articles. I am very selective on who I watch and trust but I am open to look into more. If a creator is selling you on the idea that programming is easy and you can learn it really quick then run away before you waste more time.
Primeagen This guy doesn't try to sell you his course all the time. He has multiple channels and even livestreams. Reads articles and generally has some great takes but also open to listen to other's ideas. Does have courses but they aren't your typical YouTuber or Udemy junk. They are for later on your journey (well besides the Git course).
TJ DeVriesGreat videos on Neovim if you want to really dig into the editor. Also streams non neovim content.
PirateSoftware I am not into game development but this guy has lots of content that really makes you think about security and just being a basic human.
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