How to learn to code

"Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains" - Bill Gates

I was a friend of computer science from an early age. And I've always wanted to teach myself coding. But it was only after many years that I started to learn to code. More specifically, I started when I was 18.

This was because I never really knew where to start. Where should I get the knowledge from? In fact, I always believed that coding was very difficult and that you had to be very smart to do it.

I thought you had to study Computer Science to be able to code. But as always, this turned out to be a lie. Nowadays, due to the information age, it is very easy to access knowledge using the Internet.

My beginnings

My learning path started with a Google search: "How to learn to code".

and the first advertisements came from coding schools. One of them was "Codecademy." So I subscribed in the hope of learning at least the basics. I had several learning paths: data science, desktop programming, and web development. I chose web development. You learn the basics by coding on a coding panel and reading instructions that are divided into several sections. You can see the results on a custom web browser on the right side.

I have to admit that while the site wasn't bad, there were better alternatives that would have made the learning process faster.

Later I started buying courses from Udemy, which taught me programming much better and faster than Codecademy. Udemy is a learning platform where instructors post courses on their expertise, and students enroll in them. It was much better since the knowledge was also applied through example projects. So, I had a better idea of the whole thing and could use it better in my projects.

Own project

And that was the key: you had to start your own projects and slowly build up your own portfolio. Because although the Udemy courses have brought me forward well, I have to admit that I had trouble remembering the whole thing. Because the only thing I did was that I only saw the video and code it. But I had problems consolidating my knowledge because of this.

You learn a lot more with your own projects because you always run into problems yourself, which you then solve using the Internet. If a problem arises, you search for existing solutions on sites like Stack Overflow.

And slowly but surely, I started to process. I started to connect the points that were previously floating around.

And the learning process, which was difficult for me at the beginning and admittedly no fun, became fun. Because slowly, everything made sense.

Have courage

If you want to be really good at programming, start taking on increasingly difficult challenges. If you are thinking of an "a little too ambitious" project for you, you have to make it happen. Exceed your limits because this is the only way to become the best.

Conclusion

In summary, if you want to learn to code, you can learn the basics with online courses and improve all of the knowledge with your own projects.

In addition, you should always have the courage to exceed your limits and start more difficult projects.