Two weeks down. Loops, strings, functions, scope, and closures. If you asked me before this, I would've said I understood loops. Turns out there's a huge difference between making code work and actually understanding why it works.
Week 2: The Nested Loop Revelation
I spent hours staring at for(let j = 0; j <= i; j++) trying to figure out what that j <= i was actually doing.
Then it clicked. The inner loop depends on the outer loop's counter. When i = 0, j runs once. When i = 1, j runs twice. That relationship is what makes half the patterns in programming work, and I've been using it without understanding it.
String methods showed me something else: you can chain them because each one returns a string. text.toLowerCase().trim().split(' ') works because toLowerCase() gives back a string, trim() takes that string and gives back another one, then split() works on that result. Small thing, but it changed how I think about methods.
The Project: Built a text analyzer. Takes in text, finds the most common word, checks for palindromes, counts everything. No libraries, just loops and string methods. The "find the most common word" part made me actually think instead of just Googling for a solution.
Week 3: The Documentation Trap
Functions, scope, and closures. This week was harder. Not because of time - the concepts themselves demanded more.
I'd read documentation, watch endless tutorial videos, and still not understand what they were saying. Then I'd build something small and it would click. Reading gives you the map. Building shows you the terrain.
Finally understanding closures and how functions can return other functions felt like unlocking something. It's one thing to read about it, another to see why it actually matters.
The Reality: Uni tests meant I didn't finish the project I planned for this week. That's how it goes sometimes. You adapt.
What I'm Learning About Learning
Progress isn't smooth. Some days you code for hours. Other days, the power cuts out between classes and you're just trying to keep up. But the pattern is clear now: confusion is part of the process. Read, watch, stay confused, then build something small. That's when it clicks.
Next week: recursion and arrays.
Question for you: What's one thing in code you thought you understood but later realized you had no idea how it actually worked?
Connect:
GitHub: https://github.com/Precixphantom
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/precious-afolabi-34194138b/
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