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Discussion on: What is your advice to people just getting started in code?

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Yaphi Berhanu

Projects are great, but they can sometimes be the worst way to learn at the very beginning.

I've seen too many people get discouraged because they started out with a project that sounded easy to them but then turned out to be way too difficult. For example, they'll say something like "I'll just code up a quick social network," and then it'll be too hard and they'll give up on coding completely.

If you're curious, I've written the full explanation here:

simplestepscode.com/dangers-of-pro...

The main point is to take even one afternoon to learn just enough of the basics to get an idea of what sorts of projects are reasonable. When I say "reasonable" I mean small enough to maintain momentum and significant enough to keep it interesting.

I hope this answer is useful!