The fastest way to learn coding(programming)

Remember all those things you learned in school that you never used again? I’m talking about the history dates, the capitals of states/countries, math formulas, and a bunch of the other things you’ve learned in your lifetime. I can’t speak for everyone but I certainly don’t use most of that stuff.

Now I’m not here to discuss the importance of education blah blah blah… I’m just trying to make a point: all this stuff took a long time to learn but we only use a relatively small portion. The same can be said about learning to code; you learn a lot but only apply a little bit of it. In fact, I feel like as I learn new things, I’m forgetting other things.

I used to believe that I needed to know a lot before I could start building. So I learned all about HTML, CSS, security, XY&Z frameworks, etc… I haven’t used 90% of it and I probably forgot most of it by now.

A Better Way

I believe there’s a better way: learn as you build. Now, don’t get me wrong, you have to first learn the basics of coding. Once you have a basic understanding, start building and figure things out as you go.

There’s always something else you have to learn when it comes to programming. If you wait until you learn “everything” to start building you’re never going to build. Just think of something you want to build that’s 2-3 steps beyond your current skill level, and figure out how to implement the first step.

There’s a ton of online resources such as developer documentation, Google, and Stack Overflow to lean on to figure things out.

So, for example, let’s say you want to build a website. You don’t have to be a HTML, CSS, and JavaScript expert to get started. If you want to add a menu bar that has a drop down, just look up how to do that one specific thing, then move on to the next step, and repeat. Pretty soon you’ll have a website and after building a few of them you’ll become proficient.

Take Action

I think one of the most important components of this concept is that, it’s all about action. You just get started and build on the momentum. Seeing something you imagined come to life is a great reward to keep you motivated and engaged. So don’t worry about learning everything first, just get started on building and soon it will be great.

I hope you enjoyed this post, as always comments are welcome and encouraged.

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