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Code is really tiring

One single div or semicolon gets me pulling my hair out, a question to all the non coders out there how do you work around a highly tech oriented product without a good understanding of code.

I am a self taught coder , i know nothing about the basics of code but still i can code , at times even better than the hired developers itself !

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    Next to learning programming tooling can help you a lot here. An IDE like WebStorm "knows" HTML, JavaScript, CSS and whatnot and can detect a lot of errors for you while you are coding.

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      Agree with this comment. Also, a good idea could be to set up a linter. Linters display styling errors on the IDE before you run the code.
      And for sure I would suggest something like Webstorm if you are just getting started. It helps a lot.

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    Unfortunately, that's the reality of coding... hundreds of hours wasted on simple bugs. Over time you'll train your eye to notice these little issues quickly. Although, to be honest, it still happens to me after 10 years of programming.

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      no doubt why, sass companies sell for quite a lot of money!

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    There's no way around it man. I am a seasoned C++ programmer and I still pull my hair out while learning front end development, just like with any other challenging skill (surfing comes to mind). In fact you should be happy it's hard, it's a barrier of entry for those unwilling to put in the work.

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      I know, times feel painful as building something from the ground up is a real struggle.
      The only thing working as a driving force is to imagine the product working to its potential.

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        Sure. For me personally, I just love creating. Knowing you took an idea from nothing all the way to working product is such a massive accomplishment. Plus, all the lessons learned along the way are also a great investment on your own future.

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          Yes, creating something new is the most fascinating thing !

          Not yet working completely, that's the painful party about building an enterprise level software !

          There's just too much work, and the software cannot screw up with there data , or your out of business before you even know it !

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    I have a degree in Computer Science, have been a software developer for over 20 years, and I still find times when things are frustrating (usually when using something new and the documentation/examples aren't very good). Frustration never really goes away; the cause of it just changes. The sooner you accept that it's always going to take time/effort to figure some things out (and that mistakes will be made) the happier you'll be. It's just part of the development process. Trust that you'll eventually figure it out!

    I would recommend using a good IDE that points out syntax errors.

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      I rarely get frustrated while doing the coding part itself, having written so much code in my life I actually enjoy when I encounter a new problem that I don't know how to solve. I just internally convert those problems into challenges and opportunities to learn something new.

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      Thanks, It really helps coming from someone who's an expert in the field.

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    If you don't know what you are doing with the code you open yourself to many risks like inefficiency; security vulnerabilities; malfunctioning product; distrust from customers; creating a product that is hard to develop for; and more.

    If you don't know the product, you should hire someone who does (and you trust). The thing is if you are not good at coding, but you are doing better than the hired developer... why did you hire them?

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    Personally I find coding really enjoyable and not an issue. I actually like the challenge of hitting a bug/problem that is harder to solve, but my background is different (10+ year of programming, CS degree, solved hundreds of algorithmic problems for olympiads in high school and university).

    My suggestion would be to learn the basics very well, learn how a computer works, learn some basic algorithms and then most of the coding issues you currently encounter will be gone. It's a lot easier to work with something if it's not a black box. After a while you can solve any error/problem that occurs just by intuition, you just "feel" that the problem might be related to a specific part of your application/code.

    Learning the basics is not that hard, you just need to find a few good Youtube videos explaining the topic and then code something with the things you learn. If you spend the time to do this, you will save yourself a lot of debugging time in the future.

    You should also use linters that enforce specific coding patterns and notify you of potential problems before they actually happen.

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    Lots of backend devs buy their frontends
    There are lost of sites selling admin templates for example..
    They will restrict you a little, but that can be good sometimes, and it is much easier to copy and paste sections, amend makes little changes etc with a solid starting point.

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    After twenty-something years in the industry, the metaphor for programming I really like is driving. Specifically, any of us can pick up how to drive and a lot of us can do a pretty good job over our usual routes, but driving eight hours a day, five days a week, for forty years, is well beyond what most of us are willing to do and certain tasks will generally benefit from a specialist, such as hauling cargo or getting people to the nearest emergency room before they die. On top of that, we have more of an opportunity to drive better the more we understand about the purpose of the trip, how cars work, and the state of the roads. One tiny problem (like a hole in a tire) can screw up the whole trip. And lastly, if you're driving, find yourself going the wrong way, and refuse to pull over for help, you're going to get into bad situations.
    But most of us muddle through when we need to and pay the professionals when it's beyond our interests.
    In the programming world, yes, anybody can pick up enough to help out, and it's great when anyone does. But without an understanding of why code is organized like this instead of that, without asking for help, and without the experience to guess what the original developers were thinking, it's going to be a struggle. And yes, part of that struggle is that you can waste half a day hunting down a problem that turns out to be a semi-colon; some people will gladly (when retelling the story afterwards) push through that work for the small dopamine rush, and some people will hate every minute of it and wonder what the point was. The latter is going to be pretty exhausting; it doesn't mean you're not cut out for it, but it does mean you should probably look after your stress levels, make sure you have resources when things aren't coming together, and try to find the parts of the work you enjoy more.

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      I know making a commitment to do this for the rest of my life , its daunting to even think about it! At times it really feels like hauling cargo , and there after the questioning begins !

      It's only the result , that drives us to take risks and keep doing it as the end result feels like everything you always wanted.

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        Agreed. And to clarify my point (to the extent that the point was any deeper than "yes, it takes a lot of work"), it's that programming is one of the careers where almost anybody can accomplish anything, but they need to be willing to put the work in, and there's no shame in not wanting to do something else, instead. Too many people try to frame it as if there are people suited to the work and people who aren't, but it's often just a matter of whether you can enjoy that frustration and exhaustion.
        One of the roughest things in talking about the topic (and I apologize if it sounds like I pushed too hard in a particular direction) is avoiding suggesting that programming is easy, because that undermines the confidence of people who work hard, but also not make it sound like it's a hard life, because it almost never is.
        If there's one takeaway in the driving analogy, though, it's that the people who don't stop to ask for directions are lost more often than they need to be. Never be afraid to reach out to people for help.

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    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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      Thanks for a cheer up , that's quite a lot of MRR you have with your companies !

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    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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      True that !

      A man's ego is always bigger than it seems.

      I journal while i code, this is what has helped me with things to remember when coding , like annotations to every crucial parts of code, and preparing documentation to the code on gitbook.

      It's surely too much effort , think of it as a beginners way of adapting .

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        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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