Parts in this series
Part 1
Learning to program is hard. There are a few reasons this is the case:
- Programming itself is hard. However, this is less true than most people believe. Programming professionally is pretty difficult. But doing basic cool stuff that makes you feel accomplished is quite easy.
- There are many “specializations” in programming. A beginner programmer isn’t going to know what all those are, let alone which one they are interested in. You shouldn’t have to choose the first programming language you want to learn before you know what programming languages are. You shouldn’t have to decide between mobile apps, games, data science, artificial intelligence and various types of web development before you understand the basic programming structures.
- Setting up all the programs and tools (coders call this the ‘development environment’) needed to write software is hard.
- Everything you need to know seems to depend on knowing all the other things that you need to know. It becomes really tricky to decide what to learn first.
This post is the first in a series intended to address all these points, especially the last two. I want to present easy-to-digest steps that anyone who can use a web browser should be able to follow to learn the basics of coding. The end goal might be to just give you a stab at a new hobby. Or maybe you’ll love it and end up with a new career in a lucrative field. Either way, I hope those programmer friends who have been urging you to try programming have recommended this post to you.
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