I hated Tuesdays four years ago
I used to wish the day after Monday could be Wednesday. Tuesday was that day of the week when I faced one of my biggest fears — programming classes. I was in second year and it was my first time of taking a course in programming. Before then, I had never written a line of code. The first few classes I attended sent a scary signal. I knew I had to put in extra work to be able to pull through the course. Many of the concepts seemed very abstract and by the time we got to object oriented programming, inheritance and encapsulation, I was lost already. The more lectures I attended, the more confused I got. In fact, many of my classmates also shared this frustration. We had a meeting and decided we had to look for a collective solution to this problem. We hired a student in year four who took us every Friday and who hinted that the lecturer often repeats exam questions. It got better. At least I could define a variable and assign it then perform simple arithmetic. But because we already had it in our subconscious that programming was hard, many of us didn’t make much progress.
The exams would require me to write code and I didn’t have a good grasp of it. For me, failure wasn’t an option! I decided I was going to cram since my efforts weren’t yielding any positive results. Before the exams, I got solutions to past questions and crammed all the answers. Yes! I crammed. I crammed all classes, functions, constructors, properties, down to variable names. Eventually, I managed to get a C in this course.
Some months later, there was a strike action that lasted six months. During this period, I came across an opening for the position of a student research assistant and I applied. Luckily, I was selected. I had the opportunity of working with someone who understood the rudiments of programming. This was what changed the game. I went back to my course textbook (Illustrated C# by Daniel Solis) and read it from cover to cover. I could then relate easily with concepts I found very difficult to understand. Programming is logic. The first step is always brainstorming. You need to think about how you want to solve a problem before writing the code. Deep thinking is a successful ingredient in coding.
Today, I can write proficiently in four stacks and teach others. It’s been an exciting and challenging journey. There’s no greater feeling than getting to your workstation everyday and knowing that your work contributes to solving a problem in the society.
This experience has shaped me in many ways. If you’re interested in learning how to code, I have the following tips for you:
1. Never miss the basics: Always start from scratch if you are just starting. The initial phase is as important as the end.
2. Get your hands dirty: Tutorials would teach you a great deal. But the real challenge comes when you work on projects. Invent challenges, ask questions, read other people’s code and write algorithms. There are so many ways to write code. You’ll be amazed that people have come up with simpler and faster solutions to the problem you’re trying to solve. Never stop learning!
3. Pick one language and learn it well. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the numerous technology stacks we have today. As a beginner, focus on learning one language at a time. If you understand one programming language in depth, it would be easier to pick up new ones.
4. Join communities. Communities are supposed to connect you with people with like interests. I got free access to the MSDN and many other resources after attending a Microsoft boot camp. This helped me to build my first mobile app.
5. Teach others. Teaching is the easiest way to learn. As a principle, once I crack a problem, I tell other people about it. That way, I don’t forget how I solved it and they also know what to do when they encounter the same issue.
Stay coding!
