How do I Learn to Code
Hey guys, I'm a total n00b to code. Looking to learn so I can build things for my own purposes, though I do want to be able to have others make sense of it. I've been trying to figure out where the stairs to the pool is. I don't think I'll stick with anything I can't immediately see some progress on, and feel like I'm able to pull some things together fairly quickly. I was just looking at this React UI kit which seems interesting to me. It seems there is predecessory knowledge I must have before doing things with this. And I imagine some stuff with data-bases? Thoughts? What is available now that you wish you had when you started?
Hey TJ if you're goal is to just build things for your own purposes you may want to look into no code tools like webflow. These are much easier to get started building things and still indirectly teach the basics of html css. If you're interested I can curate a free 'no code course' that would teach you all the basics you'd beed to know.
If you're adamant on coding, I'd recommend taking the free lessons at: https://nodeschool.io/
Open the developer console of your browser (often ctrl+shift+i). Go to the console tab and type in (or copy/paste):
alert("Hello TJ!");
You just wrote some code and used a function!
In my opinion many developers are quite keen/happy to teach code because they see the value in it. So, do you know any developers who might make good teachers? Another place to look is mentorcruise.com (another IH project). Then there's Lynda, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Coursera, and YouTube (at various price points).
Two cautions though:
1.) "so I can build things for my own purposes"
It might take time and it will certainly take failures before you see success. This is sort of like a university engineering student saying they need to build a bridge to drive over to the island and park at their cabin. It's for their own purpose but to build a bridge that supports a motorcycle, let alone an SUV, take time and hard work.
2.) "I don't think I'll stick with anything I can't immediately see some progress"
It seems quite common for non-devs to think "software is easy" it doesn't help that websites are free to access and there's millions of games in the iStore for $0.99 so people think its worth very little. Often these cheap games are loss-leaders for someone to make a name for themselves, to advertise something, or in the hope 5 millions people will play it (thus, $5,000,000).
The truth is, you're not going to immediately see a beautiful, functional, loveable software. Software, like anything else, requires the 10,000 hours principle.
One of my, many, projects looks like this right now:
I hope that helps and don't give up, it's a lot of fun to automate and build functional things.
Thank you so much!