I'm probably the oldest person in the room. I'm 45 years old, a middle-level executive, and I wish I could go back 20 years and kick myself for not devoting more time to developing a coding career. I was fortunate to have always had a computer, but I wasted my time chasing girls and hanging out in Tijuana when I should have been learning Basic. I've always been fascinated by what you geniuses can accomplish, and when I finally decided to dive in and teach myself, I realized how far out of my league I'd gotten.
I've always been successful in the careers and jobs I've had in the past, so don't take my mood as completely depressed about it, but damn... I just wish I hadn't taken the path I did. Who knows what I could or could not have done? I suppose that's how regret works.
The issue I've always had is that I'm not a beginner, but I'm also not an expert. I can follow tutorials on the internet, and because I understand the concept at least, I can complete the majority of the projects I've attempted. The annoying thing that happens is that I will start a project with a guide, and there will be one concept that I don't understand, or the guide sharing their knowledge simply assumes that everyone knows, so they gloss over an important step, or simply omit it. At that point, I've installed dependencies, looked up everything that I thought I should, and still find myself at a loss. A good example is Solidity. Another is APIs. I know why they work and why they are important, but the retention of the information or the implementation of the process alludes me.
I haven't given up, and I suppose that's what keeps me interested in learning as much as possible. It's not like I'm going to quit my well-paying job to work for a startup right now. I only do it for myself. So when everything comes together and I finally understand the mystery that had been veiled, I'm satisfied. It's much more than just closing a deal or persuading a company to sell to us. Those are minor victories. If I could just master markdown, I'd feel like I'd accomplished something significant.
Top comments (3)
It seems like you're in tutorial hell. We've all been there.
I'm largely a self-taught developer and what I've learned is that project-based learning is usually the best way to learn how to do useful things.
Later on, you'll want to pick your tech stack. Pick the languages and frameworks that suit your daily needs and get good at them. Coding can be a black hole... like math or physics. No one really "masters" all of coding. We all have our specialties.
Agree with all of this start working on your own projects and get away from the safety of the tutorials. You will learn much faster if you go into the deep end. Tutorials are like swimming in the shallow end of the pool you will be safe but you won't really progress any further until you go to the deep end.
Most programming languages are trying to solve the same problems: looping, branching, represent real world objects and do stuff to them, fetch and set information from a permanent data store. The key is to understand the discreet steps required to break down the business/technical problem. The rest is then syntax. 20+ years of solving business problems as a manager will make you a better developer because you will have more of a handle on trying to solve the business problem rather than just the technical one