How To Learn Programming Without All The Stress

How To Learn Programming Without All The Stress

Programming knowledge canĀ lead to some great jobsĀ and thatā€™s got more and more people scrambling to learn how toĀ code. Maybe youā€™ve decided to pursueĀ programming, whether for a career or just as a hobby. Great! But maybe youā€™re starting to feel overwhelmed. Not so great.

Weā€™ve written before onĀ choosing a programming languageĀ and weā€™ve compiled places where you can learn programming, but there isnā€™t much aboutĀ howĀ to approach the learning process in a way that keeps you from wanting to tear your hair out.

Iā€™ve gone through my own share ofĀ coding-related frustrations and I hope some of this advice can help to ease your journey as much as possible.

Itā€™s Not Just You: Programming Is Hard

As with most things, you must have the right mindset before learning how toĀ code. Sure, you could make do with a poor attitude and it would still possible to learn stuff here and there, but the process will take longer and youā€™ll hate it the whole way through.

Programming is hard,Ā thereā€™s no doubt about that. Even the smartestĀ programmersĀ are stumped on a regular basis by bugs and errors in their own code. It might feel as if everyone else knows what theyā€™re doing and youā€™re the only one whoā€™s struggling, but thatā€™s nowhere near the truth.

Take solace in the fact that everyone has trouble with programming at the start.Ā You are not alone in your struggle.Ā Not only is itĀ normalĀ to be confused and frustrated, but evenĀ expected. Thereā€™s nothing wrong with you if you find it difficult, so donā€™t feel discouraged or stressed. It takes time.

And thatā€™s the mindset you need to have if you want to learn programming:Ā itā€™s going to take a long time.Ā Weā€™re talking on the scale ofĀ years. The quickest way to be stressed as a programmer-in-training is to expect instant understanding, instant improvement, and instant results. Weā€™ll see in a later section that it just doesnā€™t work that way.

Make peace with the fact that the journey before you will be long and arduous.

Take It One StepĀ At A Time

Like spoken languages, programming languages are vast topics of study that must be learned from the ground up. Consider the process of learning a foreign language likeĀ Spanish,Ā German,Ā orĀ Korean.

Start with the fundamentals.Ā The most basic units of any language begin with letters, then words, then sentences. For programming, you have to start with keywords, syntax, and overall program flow.

Donā€™t worry about advanced material until youĀ first master the basics. It wouldnā€™t make sense to try writing poetry before you understood the basic rules of grammar, would it? Postpone the advanced stuff until you truly have a grasp on the foundations.

In other words, donā€™t rush it.Ā Focus on one topic at a timeĀ before moving onto the next. By limiting your scope of study like this, you can keep yourself from being overwhelmed. Itā€™s one of the rules ofĀ setting effective goals: to eat an elephant, take your bites one by one.

Sudden Epiphanies: It Has To Click

Over the past year and a half, Iā€™ve been studying theĀ Unity game engine, which relies on an entity-component paradigm rather than the object-oriented paradigm that I learned growing up. It wasĀ immensely frustratingĀ for the first twelve months because I justĀ couldnā€™t understand it.

Until one day, I sat down at my computer and it all clicked. The material that had caused me to bang my head against the wall for nearly a year? It all finally made sense. There was no particular tutorial or lecture that opened my eyes. Nope. It was literally an epiphany.

The lesson is this:Ā not everything is going to make immediate sense.Ā It has nothing to do with your intelligence or aptitude. Programming is one of those things that you either understand or you donā€™t and it can take a while for that switch to flip.

It will happen eventuallyĀ as long as you donā€™t give up. Persistence is an important attribute for any kind of programmer. Scrape a stone wall with a metal spoon long enough and youā€™ll eventually make it to the other side. Donā€™t be discouraged along the way.

Find As Many Resources As You Can

Suppose someone showed you a photograph of a statue. It might provide enough of an image for you to get an adequate sense of the statue, but you wouldnā€™t get the whole picture. A zoomed-out photo would lose intricate details while a zoomed-in photo would lose a sense of perspective.

However, with each additional photograph, you can really start to see the fullness of the statue in texture, in size, in detail, from front-to-back, side-to-side, and top-to-bottom.

With programming, one explanation is often not enough to truly grasp a particular topic. Thatā€™s why itā€™s important that youĀ exhaust as many resources as you canĀ in terms of documentation, tutorials, videos, lectures, etc. Each additional resource can provide additional insight.

For example, you may not receive much benefit from Tutorial A and it leaves you feeling lost. Tutorial B also confuses you, though it might clarify some of the subject matter. But then you read Tutorial C which is presented in a way that brings everything from Tutorials A and B together. Finally, the topic makes sense.

It also helps toĀ find a mentor or coding buddy. Self-taught learning is great, but itā€™s better to have someone to whom you can ask questions and receive an instant response. This can turn three days of frustration into a simple five-minute conversation.

Practice and Play Around ā€“ Be Bold!

Last word of advice:Ā programming is more practical than theoretical. Not that there arenā€™t any theoretical aspects (because there are) and not that programming isnā€™t a cerebral exercise (because it is), but no amount of study will matter if you never put it into practice.

I canā€™t tell you how many times Iā€™ve spent countless hours reading documentation on a code library that I couldnā€™t understand, yet within an hour of launching a terminal and playing around with the code itself, it all became clear.

Donā€™t be afraid to practice by playing around.Ā Launch a blank project and start messing with theĀ code. Fiddle with it, break it, and repair it. None of this is wasted time. You may not be writing code that ends up in a final product somewhere, but youā€™ll end up saving yourself a lot of learning time down the road.

Programming is not something that can be learned passively.Ā You have to get your hands dirty.Ā Instead of fearing bugs and errors, embrace them. Learn how to fix them or work around them. Practice builds experience, experience builds confidence, and confidence keeps you from feeling overwhelmed or stressed.

For you beginner coders out there, I hope some of this helps. Feel free to ask questions down below.Ā Experts, share your advice with us in the comments!Ā How do you stay stress-free while learning how to program?