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j"19HxigV4QyBv3tHpQVcUEQyq1pzZVdoAutMã)Twitter Post by @mckaywrigley - #1 piece of advice for new programmers 1. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. 2. Focus more on understanding correctness proof and run time analysis. If you would do it with 200 problems then you don't need 1000 programming questions to bbecome pro. 3. Coders never got the glory. That was only the domain of the entrepreneurs. 4. Learn to breakdown the tasks into smaller parts. Build a flow chart and Google. 5. Practice and don't feel bad if it takes longer than what others make you think. True craftsmanship takes years. Best of luck! 6. Every problem is solvable if you don't give up. You just have to decide if its worth solving. But if you run into a roadblock when working on something you can always get through it given enough time and effort, no matter how much it dosn't look thats the case. 7. a Don't worry about technology stack - work on problems to solve. b Don't get married to the first piece of code you write, or even the second or third. You improve every day and would hate to see your own code a few months later. 8. Follow your curisoty and excitement. Almost any path you choose will pay; if you follow what excites you, you'll go deeper and learn more, which leads to greater success and satisfaction. 9. Look at code from popular/well organised libraries. It will help show you how to setup and config projects, how to code alongside others, and good style and documentation. Contribute to an open source library if possible. This is even better, but sometimes too much for a beginer! 10. One language/framework at a time. Its too hard to focus with so many technologies at your disposal. Become proficient at one language first, then you can think about what to learn next. 11. Have an opinion on languages, but don't get zealous about it. Programming languages are like drills, lots of brands with some different features, but they all do the same thing. Learning technique is more important, a good engineer is combo tinkerer and detective. 12. Refactor complexity until you're left with simple components. Focus on clear architecture and patterns. Frameworks tfw. Avoid premature opitimisations and solving problems you don't have. Don't fret if you struggle. Programming isn't easy, but it gets easier in time. 13. Just have fun with the tools and programming languages but concentrate in analysing and solving problems. This makes you better. And I realised that best for learning code is just by doing it. Play around and find your own way. 14. Work on projects of your own. They will drive you to learn more. 15. Start with extremly small projects, my first one was a calculator. Focus on the project, its so easy to get distracted and want more out of a feature. Figure out how you learn best. Docs, videos or guides. Then expand. Find a mentor, I learned from comp sci uni students when I was 12. 16. Define your stress response so you can mitigate them when they trigger wanting to give up on a problem (or on programming). After that, understand the power of rest and of consistency. 17. Strong contracts. Each function's input / output and side effects have to be super clear from name / comments without reading implementation. Least shared / global state. Then you build complex things on solid similer primatives. 18. Keep it simple. Focus on one task at a time. DRY. Learn to walk away from and return to a hard problem or get a second pair of eyes. Keep learning new tech. 19. RTFM, RTFStkOvrFlw, code up series of little steps forward that work. Change the code samples in fun ways, "Hello creepy world" ... tinker code up something that may not make sense to do a silly, fun. If you're in a class, most profs will accept slightly changed assignments. 20. Attend the tech design reviews and post mortems even if you were'nt involved. Its a great way to learn from history (granted many times you will still end up repeating the same mistakes). 21. Keep grinding it out even when the 'pieces' of the puzzle seem too numerous. They start to come together when you sit with them long enough. 22. In my extremely limited experience as a mechanical engineer, you can't learn code in isolation. If you're learning to acquire a new skill, you need to find/create a project to apply those skills to. You won't learn in a vacumn. 23. Start with a scratch-your-own-itch project. Something you always wanted. Your motivation and enthusiam will carry you through the hard parts. 24. Take a bunch of coursera or similar courses with actual programming homework. Its nice to learn in an environment where there are clear expectations and the methods are already chosen. Never throw away any code you write, and backup your code archive. 25. Focus on the end product, know what you want to make. The product is the art you're trying to create, not the language or framework you use. 26. Anything competing for your attention should be avaided at all costs. Your mind will try to sneek in some rewards (hits of dopamine/serotonin) by wanting to check social media, email, news etc. Don't let it. Allow only one way to get the reward - complete your top priority tasks. 27. Learn to communicate. Don't get stuck for too long. Ask questions, make mistakes, iterate, grow. 28. Find a good mentor. Better done than perfect. Be ready to justify your choices. Try to enjoy what you are doing. Think about your cariea pathas soon as possible. Give but also get or find something else. Avoid those who are always right. Take ownership of what you build. 29. In general long term thing is better than short term thinking. But when you are learning programming, short term thinking is essential, just try to solve the problem in front of you, and then move on to the next problem. Don't get hungup on architecure or best practices. 30. If you want to try something that looks too complex, do it anyway. Worst case you'll enjoy the steps to get there. People saying "This is the right way to do things" are always wrong eventually. Experimenting > memorising 'best practices'. Also, jupyter lab > notebook. 31. Learn to love feeling stupid. It means you're learning. 32. Find someone that will hang out with you and program together. Whether its an experienced mentor or an equally inexperienced partner. Don't get intimidate by others, especially if they pretend to have all the answers (they don't). 33. Ignore fancy libraries and frameworks, start with "Hello world" in C and take it from there. Have fun playing with code. Understand what exact benefit it is that high-level lenguages or frameworks are giving you, and to what extent they succeed in it. 34. Contribute to large OSS projects. This lets you get a feel for architecture, how works get split up, how to do good code reviews, how to disagree with others in a productive manner, and how to dive into a codebase to really understand how it works without being the original author. www.firstimersonly.com 35. Build something you love / want to build. Don't over think it, just start coding / hacking (find code that works and modify it). 36. Build a creative set of skills on the side as well. A programmer who can write the content, present the complex architecture with graphics, with more than average speaking skills is going to taek you ahead. 37. Then remember, each action must be evaluated for errors and handled with some response for possible error scenarios. Then think Events. You trigger them. You listen for them. You act on the ones you hear, if needed. Trigger is a create type. Listen is a read type. 38. Think of the architcture of your code as layers. Interface if the view, what people (or other code) uses. Actions taken are generally business logic (what you want your app to do what you want to do). Stored data is your database or data layer. 39. Most of programming is debugging. Its not the stereotypical coding for hours on end with no setbacks. 40. Don't be overwhelmed. Pick one language and domain you like and keep coding, even if you don't understand the theoretical concepts too wll. Make maistakes, search online for their solutions and learn iteratively. 41. There is a lot out there. But its kind of like learning a musical instrument. If you know one really well you can kind of understand the others and switch with relatively shorter learning period later. 42. Build by any means necessary. Tutorials, cloning other repos, using snippets from Stack Overflow. The issues that arise from integrating code and having to users interact with what you build will point you to where to focus next. 43. Working on a blog post to flesh out this advice. Namely, when building projects how can you increase the volume of feedback and tighten the feedback loop. 44. Write every line of code in public. Put everything on Github. Its a great way to get jobs in the future, plus you can colloborate with and get feedback from others, and learn from working on projects much bigger than yours. 45. You tend to weight against other devs and question am I eligible to code or should I quit and such. Keep going andd not give up, you will soon realise this is how you learn and handle things in the programming world. Good luck! 46. Think about readibility of your code. "Programs are meant to be read by humans" - someone famous once said. 47. Dont skip writing tests. Learn to think of pros and cons of your solutions (solve your task in one way, then find at least one more way of doing it and ask why would I choose this over that). Learn to read code of other people and ask specific questions. Master your IDE. 48. Just start making stuff, have an idea and go for it. You learn by fixing problems. I'm assuming you have a basic understanding of programming (conditionals, variables and loops). 49. Try coding on your own as soon as you can, because successfully completing courses and tutorials gives the illusion that you can code. Starting from Line 1 on your own is an entirely different ballgame. 50. Don't bounce from language to language pick one and dive into it. 51. 1st year, you have no idea. 2nd year, you feel like you will never get this. 3rd year, start making sense little by little. Do not give up. 52. Also, avoid feeling that you need to know every new domain, framework, approach or programming language that exists. You can very quickly run the risk of being lackluster at many things instead of grat at one. 53. Not every question can be answered by googling. text/plain; charset=utf-8UTF-8LTwitter%20Post%20by%20%40mckaywrigley%20-%20%20%231%20piece%20of%20advice%20for%20new%20programmers.txt62b09930-d606-11ea-a946-d3571a50d4b6.txt