Learn Programming the Right Way...

Key Takeaways

most people start programming in the wrong way and it either slows them down or makes them quit entirely that's why in this video I'm going to break down the five common traps that most beginners fall into and how to avoid those you can actually level up as a software engineer trap number one is jumping between too many languages and Frameworks look as you get better as a developer it's important to diversify your knowledge and learn a few different languages jump into some different Frameworks and mess around in different areas however when you're just getting started you want to do the opposite of that you need to pick one programming language and focus on learning that for at least 3 months before you switch into anything else so pick python JavaScript go C++ whatever it is I don't really care but learn the fundamentals of that language understand the syntax and start learning how to solve problems with that language after you do that it's okay to switch to something else but you don't want to make the mistake of constantly switching between different languages especially when you're just a beginner or trying to learn multiple of them at the same time focus on one get decent in that language then you can switch over and it's going to be a lot easier than if you're constantly going between different ones now I say this because I made this exact mistake when I was starting out I started learning how to code quite young I didn't have a road map I didn't really have a goal in mind and because of that I kept switching between different languages I would learn a bit of PHP then I would go into JavaScript then I learned C then I learned Python and I never got good in one of these languages it felt like every time I switched I was just relearning the stuff I already knew and then picking up all of the differences for that specific language sure this gave me good domain knowledge but I never got to the point where I could build something complex or felt confident and it was a huge hindrance to me at the beginning so please stick with one language once you get decent at it you can go to something else but you need to put in a good amount of time with that first language and by the way one of the best ways to practice your programming skills is to work on small programming problems not massive comp complex projects at least when you're starting out and because of that I actually created a free newsletter where I send you a ton of coding challenges completely for free I also have project ideas in there General tips and insights and I even made a lead magnet which is how to make money from coding which I'll give you completely for free if you sign up for the newsletter from the link in the description anyways let's get into trap number two which is overloading on tutorials now this is a bit ironic because I am a tutorial Channel I make money from you guys watching my tutorials but I also want the best for you and I don't want you just to spend every single day of your life binge watching my videos and hearing my beautiful voice the point is you need to spend more time working on your own than you do watching other people code when you're starting out it is very important to have some guidance to have a mentor to have someone teaching you and to watch things like the videos I have on my channel but as you get better and better and further along in your journey you need to make sure that you spend a majority of your time actually writing code with your hands on the keyboard working on projects running into problems debugging your code and doing all of the things that I would do when I prepare tutorial videos so yes tutorials are fantastic you should use them and you can learn a ton from them you want to make sure you balance out your learning and for every tutorial you watch you should be spending at least that amount of time doing something on your own don't get stuck in the famous tutorial hell where all you do all day is binge watch videos you feel like you know it and then all of a sudden you hop on the computer and you have no idea what to do to avoid that make sure you code along with the tutorials anything you watch try to apply it immediately after and spend at least the same amount of time writing code on your own as you do watching other people do it now this third trap is so incredibly common and I blame the traditional education system for this now that is simply memorizing code rather than trying to understand it now look when you go through elementary school and high school and even a lot of University most of what you need to do is simply memorize Concepts if you can do that you'll be able to pass you'll probably even get good grades and most systems reward people for simply memorizing a ton of useful knowledge rather than truly understanding something and using your critical thinking skills however in programming it's really the complete opposite in order to be a good developer you don't actually need to memorize all of the syntax you need to really understand how to use these tools and have a lot of practice using them so yes things like for loops and if statements and the very basic syntax things that you're going to write hundreds or if not thousands of times you'll end up memorizing it just because you use it a lot but you don't need to focus on memorizing all of these abstract methods that maybe change a string in something like python or all of the tools within this framework you need to focus on actually understanding what's going on the flow of the program and how to break down complex problems so please don't overwhelm Yourself by writing massive lists and huge notes with every single method and every single little piece of syntact it's totally fine if you forget something you should just know hey there's probably this thing I remember seeing this before I don't know the exact name or exactly how it works but that's fine I'm going to go look it up and then I'm going to use it so it's more about being resourceful knowing that these tools exist and then later on when you need the specific implementation being comfortable going out there and looking for it that's what I do every single day sometimes I even forget some basic python syntax or some random JavaScript methods you guys as beginners might even know some of those better than me because I just don't use them as much as you do so the point is don't focus on memorizing focus on understanding and be comfortable not knowing every single method or every single line but be willing to go look it up and find the answer when you need it now trap number four usually happens a bit later in your coding journey and that is expecting to master it quickly a lot of people get into software development and they see all these stories of people that learned how to code in 3 months or four months and were able to lend jobs and they expect that that's going to be them the reality is this field does take a good amount of time to get get into especially a good amount of time to get really good at mastering software development is not something that will happen quickly and when you get into this field you should set the goal of this being a long-term sustainable career not something that you just want to Blitz through as quickly as you can so please go into this with the expectation that this is going to take you a lot of time that is totally fine and the more time that this takes you the better software engineer you're going to become now I say this because a lot of people get really discouraged when they're not Landing internships or they haven't had a really massive project they've worked on or they haven't won a hackathon in the first three months of them learning how to code this takes everybody a different amount of time and I'll give you an experience personally from myself a lot of people think when they watch this Channel and they watch some of my older live streams that I'm just like this coding Prodigy that I was just born with a super high IQ and I can just do this super easily that couldn't be further from the truth and you have to remember I started learning how to code when I was 12 it wasn't until I was about 16 17 years old that I was even decent at coding some of you guys watching this have probably been learning to code for 3 four 5 months maybe you have a really solid road map or you've gone through something like my software development program and you're already a better programmer than I was after doing this for four or 5 years so it takes everyone a completely different amount of time some people get this really naturally some people it takes a lot more effort the point is this is going to take a long amount of time and you need to go into this with that expectation now one way to help you stay motivated because this is a long journey is to make sure you have a goal and a road map I've been saying this a lot recently because it's so incredibly important you need to know that you're making progress you need to have at least some kind of checklist of the type of things that you're learning or some achievements that you can check off that way you know hey I'm looking back 3 months from now at this point I was only this far on my road map and now I've made it all the way to here so even if the progress is slow at least it's progress and if you know you're working towards some kind of end goal you can see how far you've come and it can keep you motivated to keep going it's just like investing you start really slow and then as the years goes on it compounds and compounds and compounds and you can see how far you've come and how big your portfolio has grown now trap number five is feeling overwhelmed with too many resources in today's age it's easier to learn how to code than it ever has been there's so many Fantastic resources out there many of them paid many of them free the point is that you have unlimited options unlimited places you can go to learn and a lot of people get really overwhelmed by that and they end up either just not doing anything or really jumping between so many different areas like one of the first traps I mentioned so it's so important today that you spend time upfront to research the different resources available and then pick one and stick with it for example if you really like my videos If you mesh with my teaching style then watch a bunch of the tutorials that I have use me as a resource to learn how to code however if maybe my style is not for you you don't like the way I talk whatever go and use someone else but don't jump between so many different things constantly because it's going to be very difficult to keep track of where you are are and you're constantly going to be changing environments and kind of starting over with the new resource so if you find a really good course that works for you go with it run with it finish it right get through that resource and use all of that value now of course it's okay to look at different people it's okay to use different resources and I encourage this but I just don't want you to get overwhelmed and it's much better to find one highquality resource and stick with that and then move on to the next one rather than constantly switching and spending half your day looking for the next video or the next lesson you're going to watch and with that in mind if you do want a fantastic and much more interactive resource to learn these types of things then check out the sponsor of today's video which is brilliant brilliant is where you learn by doing with thousands of lessons in math data analysis programming and AI they adopt a first principles approach ensuring you understand the why behind each concept every lesson is interactive engaging you in Hands-On problem solving which has proven to be six times more effective than simply watching lectures the content is developed by top-notch Educators researchers and professionals from 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