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Learn programming in 1 hour a day

Josh Cheek on July 09, 2018

This was initially a comment on "How long do you spend learning to code?", but I thought it made more sense to make it its own post. Reynaldo s...
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Reynaldo Veras

Wow my mind is just blown right now! I feel like I just dived into the matrix in my learning journey. I never herd of hard and soft skills nor would the idea of katas have ever came up in my google searches. I am a veteran and I am definitely going to take advantage of that unicorn opportunity! So far I tried learning all the different things I can do with my editor and I find it amazing how much I can customize my experience on the editor. Thank you for all the information. I highly appreciate it and it's been a real big help.

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Josh Cheek

Of course _^

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Fred Ross

The important thing to know is that no one is going to agree on the best way to learn to code. For example, I would certainly not tell someone to go learn keyboard shortcuts. I went that route twenty years ago and now I steadily re-mouse more and more of my workflow.

I always recommend How to Design Programs and its companion software as a first programming course, since the folks who put it out actually spend lots and lots of time teaching beginners.

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Josh Cheek • Edited

I also taught beginners professionally (ie as a teacher) and unprofessionally (ie because people were interested in learning). I found that actually interacting and writing code is the most important thing. That said, I looked at the table of contents for the book, and if that's what someone feels more comfortable with, then I'm cool with them using it. Just looked at a sample page and it looks like the book is using a lisp, I'm guessing Racket, based on the red and blue lambda icon. Racket seemed like a pretty cool language when I played with it, but I don't know how many resources are out there for new people, how many libraries exist for it, how many jobs are hiring for it, etc. One thing I do like about lisps is they love their REPL, which is a great habit to be in.

WRT typing, knowing how to use your tools is important because it reduces the overhead between thinking and doing. Practice your tools so that your tools aren't a constant impediment. When working with students, if I didn't show them the keybindings and quiz them, then I'd see them months later, still spending 30 seconds stumbling to do something that should have taken one or two seconds. By the time they finally get it, they forgot why they were even trying to do that. Practicing keybindings is about reducing the cost of the interface. Even a little bit of progress here can lead to big wins. The process stops being frustrating and starts being fun (and that's incredibly important for new people). When the interface begins to melt away, you begin to become fluent in the language, and you can start thinking in high-level goals instead of low level implementation details.

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Okejiri Emmanuel

Read our guide and learn how to improve your iPhone battery health. This will allow you keep your phone healthy and away from phone spy

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Mac Siri

This is such a great write-up for a reasonable guideline. Thanks for sharing!

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Vikas Yadav

I have been going around in circles for the last couple of months. This is quite helpful to get my head straight

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tiff

Spam @ben

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heatherlaurenco

Love this. I think I’m going to try using this format for my coding sessions.

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Josh Cheek

Awesome, report back (if you have the time), can amend it based on what does and doesn't work well.

 
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tiff

Spam @ben

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Beeblebrox

Great advices!!! Thanks

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Rafael Corrêa Gomes

I've heard about Katas strategy before, but I never knew how to apply it and how to use it. After reading your post I'm excited to use this strategy with your thoughts!
Thank you for sharing it!

 
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tiff

@ben spam