Most Coders agree that it takes 3 to 6 months to learn a programming language, and yet I taught my friend how to code in JAVA without knowing any JAVA myself.
There are about 27 million software developers around the world right now, a number that has grown by 17% in the last 5 years, and is expected to grow even faster next year. There are about 700 computer programming languages but you don’t need to learn them all to be able to code in ANY.
I taught myself 6 or 7 programming languages, not including JAVA, and then I taught my friend how to code in JAVA in a couple of sittings.
How did teach without knowing it?
Easy. I googled it. Yup, that’s it. There’s nothing more to it than that. I simply googled stuff for her. The amazing thing about the day and age we are living in is, nothing in the world is new or inaccessible to anybody. The bad thing is there’s so much information out there that it becomes nearly impossible to find the right information at the right time, with the least amount of searching. Anyways, let’s debate the utility of the internet another time. Today we’re talking about learning any programming language with the least amount of effort involved.
😴The Wrong Approach to Coding
A bunch of programming courses I took started with
- “Hello World” of that language
- Basic Syntax
And that’s precisely the wrong approach to coding. You should never ever start learning to code with a “Hello World” OR the syntax. This approach drowns you into a long and tiresome process that makes you spend 3-6 months before creating your first useful project.
⚡The Quick and Easy Approach
What if I told you you could learn any programming language in a couple of days? The secret?
Start with a project. Because when you learn to code for a specific project, you google the right questions, and eliminate the need for learning unnecessary stuff!
When you have a project at hand, you can ask the right questions. If you only need to use integer variables, you don’t go about wasting time learning about strings, arrays, lists, or whatever. After all, the human brain can only store and process a limited amount of information at a time, so we might as well learn only what’s useful right now.
My friend already had her assignments and projects so that helped us save time. The only thing I needed to teach her was “How to think like a programmer”. And that’s exactly what I did. Here’s what I told my friend:
- Go back to basics, draw it on paper,
- Break it into building blocks, chucks, Legos
- Translate it into math, equations, variables, conditionals, loops
- Build up using ANY programming language of your choice
- Remember! If you can do it on paper, you can code it
- My friend was happy with this and decided to continue, and that’s why she is now learning Python with me in my free online short course for friends.
❤My Favourite Things
🎬YouTube Video:
This video of Cassey Neistat running around with a drone following him through the woods just made my day.
📕Book:
I finished reading “Dragons of Autumn Twilight” by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was awesome. I don’t know who suggested I read it, but thanks. You’ve got great taste in books.
📝Quote:
Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question. — Austin Kleon: Steal Like an Artist
🎶Music:
I’ve been listening to “Pasoori” by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill from Coke Studio Season 14 on repeat. It’s wonderful.
🔍I’m Learning:
On the recommendation of Ali Abdaal the Productivity YouTuber, I started using Notion for writing my blog posts and scripting my YouTube Videos. In fact, this blog post was written within Notion itself. I’m fairly new to Notion so any tips are welcome. Let me know if you have used it.
I see that you’ve made it to the end. If you liked this blog post, check out the other stuff I talk about on my YouTube Channel. Don’t forget to subscribe!😉