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Top Painfully Fun and Ridiculous Recommendations for Newbies on How to Learn Coding

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Any newbie who is willing to become a good programmer, most likely, googles three top things at first:
  • Which programming language to begin with?
  • How to learn?
  • Where to learn?
There's no one and only right answer to these questions since there are so many men, so many minds... But if you are here, you've already set your mind on learning Java with CodeGym. So, we will omit the questions of what programming language to choose and where to learn it. Let's focus on the ways how to learn it. Top Painfully Fun and Ridiculous Recommendations for Newbies on How to Learn Coding - 1Instead of a standard selection of good suggestions, we decided to collect the most ridiculous ones below. So, let's take a look at the most common mistakes that beginners programmers make due to accidentally falling for the wrong advice. And of course, we’ll tell you about how to rectify them in the early stages to ensure you'll have fun with programming. Just like it's supposed to be!

1. Always ask Instagram/Facebook experts for advice as they are always right and, generally, much smarter than you.

Leaders should be looked up to as Gods! Everything that they say goes (even if they have started coding a few weeks ago). If they have many followers on social media, they are genius, and you should take on trust their words. Anyway, 1 follower means 1 billion brain cells, and 10,000 followers = 10,000 billion brain cells. Do you have trillions of brain cells? We don't think so. Joking aside: Instead of listening to social media influencers, read theory books or enter courses approved by time (CodeGym is definitely one of them). Naturally, by social media influencers, we don't mean software engineers or other professionals who also happen to have a big following on social media. What we mean is the plethora of people who have no real programming credentials yet have a lot to say about your poor skills and the "best" way to code. You shouldn't expect any deep knowledge from the media, so watch out for time and energy. When it comes to programming, you should depend only on reliable sources.

2. If you're having a hard time writing a program, it's the fundamental flaw in the Java language. Switch to learning something easier!

The reason one may have many bugs in their code is that Java isn't perfect. So, what's stopping you from creating your own language. Anyways, Brendan Eich spent just 10 days on the invention of JavaScript. So, what are you waiting for? Joking aside: Thinking that you already know it all and now you can move mountains is an easy mistake to make. After you finally write some good code that actually works, your confidence skyrocket, and you feel you can take on the world! Of course, this is awesome, and you should enjoy that feeling, but don't forget that you're still just learning. Probably, it's high time that you started looking back at your old code and analyzing it. Which parts of your code do you really understand, and where did you just copy-paste? Try to work out what the heck it does. To tell you the truth, many successful programmers that have been coding for more than 20 years say that they still feel they've only just scratched the surface of Java and keep learning all the time.

3. Don't take advantage of debugging tools. You should do it all by yourself!

Even if you work in a statically-typed language like Java, there is no reason to use a debugger. It's for sissies. So don't mind that debuggers can help you easily track down all the bugs in your code. Joking aside: Debugging tools have numerous benefits. They report an error condition immediately, which allows for earlier detection of bugs and makes software development more stress-free and unproblematic. Debuggers also provide many useful information about data structures and ensure their easier interpretation. A win-win choice on all levels!

4. Learn in Solo. Networking with humans doesn't matter, as your goal is to learn how to boss around computers!

One of the biggest developers' mistakes is wasting time communicating with like-minded people instead of writing code. You will be hired as a Java developer, not as a collocutor. Ignore all those Java communities. Joking aside: Even if you successfully study on your own, the time will come when you'll need to show your skills to others. What's the point of writing if nobody sees it? Besides that, training in the team or learning with some tips from peers has proven to be a much more efficient than training in isolation. If you enter a community, you'll be able to quickly get answers to your questions and find solutions easier. Hence, enhancing your coding knowledge and speeding up your whole learning process are guaranteed. Additionally, communities will give you the opportunity to express yourself when you finally feel inner confidence (this goes back to recommendation #2).

5. Copy/paste everything from the Internet. Why waste time when you can use ready-made code?

Owing to multiple resources like StackOverflow and Google, you can get almost all of the answers you're stuck with. Many developers just waste time trying to understand something that works when they can simply take it easy and use others' codes. Don't worry about understanding any of them. Joking aside: Learning from other codes is good. But just copy-pasting isn't cool. At all! When you're stuck with the code that doesn't work, and you have no idea why it's quite normal to a)refer to the community; b) Google the problem and try to learn from another approach. Sometimes using other programmers' code can help you figure out why your code doesn't give the desired output.

6. If you've written the code, your opinion about it is irrefutable. Haters gonna hate!

If you are forced to listen to the criticism of your tutor or other developers, just make sure nothing they say enters your brain. You're always right, period! Joking aside: It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, one of the most severe mistakes beginner programmers make is thinking they are not good enough, not smart enough, have the wrong type of brain, and the like. Here, the saying "Master your fear, or fear will be your master" works like no other. On the other hand, if you're too self-confident and never listen to experts, you won't advance your skills and learn something new. The key is to keep balance.

7. Creating a plan? What a waste of time!

Really, who needs a plan on how to master programming? Don't waste your precious time and get down to writing the code as soon as possible. Besides, you guys at CodeGym constantly say that practice is crucial. Joking aside: By skipping a plan, you're setting yourself up for numerous logic errors and long hours of rewriting the code. This is what one can easily avoid if one plans the studying process beforehand. Planning can not only help with time management but also aid in building a cohesive learning path. Plus, the ability to plan everything will help you in the future when you'll need to analyze the cases you might have overlooked and, thus, avoid logic errors that otherwise could have been arisen from diving right into the first solution.

8. Theory is what really matters! No coding until you know everything about computer science from books!

The more you read, the wiser you become. So, just arm yourself with lots of books, and away you go. Joking aside: This can't be further from the truth. There's often no correlation between the amount of time you spend on the theory and the success of your learning. When you learn Java, it's essential to hone each "freshly-read" skill with practice. Knowledge without the possibility of its practical application is useful only for answering tech questions in scanwords. Mind that programming requires maximum practice. Thus, try to code daily. Luckily, CodeGym offers plenty of interactive tasks after each lesson and strikes the perfect balance between theory and practice (20% vs 80%).

9. The only thing you need to be a successful programmer is to know Java.

Once you sharpen your Java skills, you'll be able to conquer the world, and there always be a crowd of employers waiting for you to say "yes" to them. Joking aside: Any programming language becomes a tool only in the hands of a skillful creator. Knowing how to write the code alone won't make you successful. Programming requires other important skills such as strong problem-solving skills, the ability to visualize a sequence of processes, communication skills, and the desire to self-learn. There won't be a day when you know everything, so never stop learning. Programming is a very interesting field with constant upgrades and new technologies that you should grasp to become a one-of-a-kind specialist. And CodeGym can help you with that! Top Painfully Fun and Ridiculous Recommendations for Newbies on How to Learn Coding - 2
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23 November 2021, 17:00
Good article but the lack of proofreading made it quite hard to read.