Lost the spark? Having a rough time? You're not alone.
Hey there people!
Again, putting in my weekly to offer support and care for anyone who's stumbling.
If you've lost the spark, having problems finding energy, or just can't get yourself to work - we got you. We've all been there. Just remember, you're not alone. I'm here to prep you up.
Post here or hit me with DM;-)
P.S. I'm not a psychologist, so can't help professionally. But as one IH to another, I'm here for y'all.
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Hi Alex, thank you for taking the time to do this.
I’ve started coding a few months ago and now I’m trying to learn Django to create my own product. Sometimes it’s really hard to understand what’s going on on the courses I’m following and I have always the feeling that I’m “not good enough” to create the product that I have in mind. What’s your opinion on that?
I have 10 years' worth of Django experience.
What specifically are you struggling with?
Hey there, @vv_donvito!
So first, great job on teaching yourself programming. It's a very useful skill and can serve you long after this specific project. Any Python, in my opinion, is a pretty decent language to begin it with (unless you're already a programmer, then it's a good one to learn ;-) ).
As for Django, I haven't used it myself (I do use Flask for my projects), so can't tell specifically how hard it is, but what I'd recommend is asking a lot of questions on platforms like Stack Overflow and Django Community (https://www.djangoproject.com/community/)
A personal story - I decided to learn Python about 10 years ago to build a product. I successfully built it, deployed to Google sites (at the time), built a frontend, and almost finished the basic set of features (it was a stock game). And you know what? It sucked. Big time. It was ugly, had lots of bugs, and I thought as you are, that I'm not good enough for this. And eventually, I stopped.
But you know what? After that, I picked Ruby to help to build an open-source text editor, and it was very familiar....because I learned Python before. I sucked at Python, and probably my Ruby wasn't the best, but I still managed to do very useful stuff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znLBOg5BilU), and the team loved it!
After a while, I scored a job at Red Hat, thanks to....Python. But working there, improved my understanding significantly, and in all following jobs, I only got better and better.
Don't think of the learning here as a means to build the product you're thinking of. Think of a product you're trying to build as a tool that helps you to acquire new skills.
These skills will carry you on, even if the product doesn't work out.
And finally, even today, after almost 20 years of working as a software engineer I still think sometimes that I'm not good enough to do what I need to do. But then I just start working, chewing off a little piece after a little piece. And eventually, things are working out ok.
Just keep working. This product might not work. And the next. And the next.
But eventually, one will. And we all are going to be here for you along the way.
P.S. If you have any specific Python issues, shoot me an email, and I'll point you to right direction ;-)
Thank you very much for your reply, Alex!! Sometimes we only need a few words of encouragement, I’ll keep in mind your advise on how to think about learning. Thinking about the product/learning in the way that you suggested really takes off a lot of unnecessary pressure from my shoulders. Thank you again! Can’t wait to DM you with the preview of my project to know what you think about it!
No worries my friend! And no pressure. Do it when you're ready.