Learning to code is hard, but can it be made simpler?

I still hark back to the first time I wrote a line of code. It was in form 2. I sneaked into the computer lab which was out of bounds for non-computer students. To date I still don’t know who made it forbidden, it must be the students. At that time, I was doing Art and Design but technology was too fascinating for me to keep up with the strokes of paint on dusty canvases.

Seeing the words, “Hello World” appearing on my screen after saving the html document and refreshing my browser, was a feeling like no other (not even rubbing organs came close). Just like a lot of people, I got excited by the ‘learn code’ craze. I expected that I could become a code pro just by completing a tutorial or two. So I found some code tutorials online, completed them, but then I realized that I was not getting anywhere. That I was not a code pro, and I still didn’t have a clue how to produce a website or app. It was so frustrating.

With time I realized coding isn’t hard. However, like anything new, it’s not easy to start, and how difficult a time one has with learning to code will vary across a number of factors. Coding requires more time and practice than you might expect. To be a competent coder, you need to learn how to produce products, not just write code. To be a web developer, you need to be able to make a website, not just write out HTML tags. To be a mobile developer, you need to be able to create an app, not just construct objects in Java or Objective-C.

Most coding training doesn’t cover these things, especially in universities and colleges, so it’s no wonder people get frustrated and give up. The reason you might think it’s ‘hard’ is because you’re not getting results. But you must understand that in order to develop your coding skills, you can’t just mindlessly follow instructions from a tutorial. You must take charge and start building.

Watching tutorials on YouTube is a great way to improve your skills but the key to advancing your coding skills is to let go of the tutorial and start your own, self-directed coding project. This can be an app, a website, or whatever is relevant to what you’re learning. It doesn’t need to be a gargantuan undertaking — just a small project that will help you apply the skills you’ve learnt.

Remember that coding is a means to an end. Your end goal should not be just to learn code, but to produce a product. Doing this will give you the experience you need to become a code ‘pro’, while also giving you a result you can be proud of.

And when you’ve completed your first product, start another one! This is the way forward. The more you get used to creating things, the more you will learn as you go, and the easier coding will become for you.

Last but not least, make peace with the fact that learning new things and getting rid of old coding habits is inevitable. It will always be there. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been coding for more 10 years or it’s your third day opening an IDE in your #100DaysOfCode challenge. I know senior developers who still have to run to Stack Overflow to confirm how certain coding functions should be implemented.