Let's Talk: Coding

Good Morning (or night or afternoon, wherever you are, whenever you read this)! This post / email is for those who want something fun to read. Hope you stick until the end!

Learning to code is oftentimes compared to the experience of learning a new language. And I agree, a hundred thousand percent. This week, I’ll be talking about my epic fails in learning this language (yay). Hope you enjoy (listening to my failures) 😄.

The first thing I would like to touch on is the difference between programming and coding. They are very different things. If I were to express the difference, (hmmm) I would say it’s like (taking building cars as an example), someone who draws up the blueprint of the car, and the person who has the tools and skills to build the cars. Programmers are the people who draws up the blueprint of that car, and the coders are the people who has the tools and skills to build the cars. I would advise not to mistake these in front of those of each professions. Though I do believe there is mutual respect, programmers aren’t necessarily coders, and coders aren’t necessarily programmers. Here’s the truth of the day: some programmers can’t code to save their life, and some coders cannot program to save their lives. Simple to understand, right?

Okay, with that out of the way, I am talking about all my failed attempts at learning to code. I tried learning programming once, but, uh, I have no clue what computers could and couldn’t do so, well, that’s a fail. Maybe I should’ve thought that one through, huh.

My first attempt in coding was…I don’t remember when, but it was in my earlier half of my high school years. I tried learning Java because it seemed cooler than HTML, and I ended up going through less than one tutorial before giving up. To be fair, it was just learning all the technical stuff, and I wasn’t doing any projects that would’ve been more fun. Also, just downloading Java was the death of me so, yup. I gave up within, say, a month. At least I learned…strings, variables, and um…what’re the numbers called? Or are they variables? I mean, I learned they exist (have no idea what they do).

My next attempt in coding was with HTML. And, apparently, that automatically means that I need to learn CSS. I went through a freeCodeCamp tutorial kind of program on the topic, and I gave up the moment it asked me to build my own thing. It’s a good free program though, so anyone wanting to learn HTML and CSS, I recommend their interactive program. It wasn’t anything wrong with the program, it was just my commitment issues. If I were to do it again, I might give up too, but I might not as well. It’s kind of…too hard but not at the same time? I don’t know. At least I learned…coloring things, shaping things, making texts, classes, spacing things out…yeah, not my thing. I wanted to learn coding to make games, not websites. But it is cool, except they lost me the moment they talked about a directory (or something) you need to have for information storing (??? What does that even mean???).

Then I tried learning programming…with python. We know how that ended up. Well, first, I had to get an IDE, and I spent one too many minutes on that before opting to codecademy’s IDE before realizing I couldn’t import turtle which I possibly needed for the game I wanted to build and, yeah. The point is, it was an epic fail. Hey, at least I know how to type out “Hello World” in the language. And yes, python is a fairly easy language to learn, so it’s perhaps the best language to try learning programming with.

Recently, I’ve been trying to learn python (not really, but I have it on my bucket list). I mean, I think I have a decent IDE to learn on, and I may try to learn programming along with coding. I mean, I’ll try my hardest (wish me luck). I also stumbled upon the existence of LaTex (I accidentally downloaded a LaTex editor, so I guess that’s an option. Cheers), which is interesting, I suppose.

By this point, you might be thinking “what is your problem with IDEs”. Well, the computers I tried coding on, they aren’t mine. Therefore, I cannot download a random IDE without the owner’s password, which, surprise surprise, I do not have intellectual access to. Currently, I’m on a chromebook and, well, I suppose Google just hates Microsoft (or vice versa) because I can’t download Visual Studio Code (which is one of the best IDEs out there. Anyone wanting to learn and can download it, download it). And of course, I could possibly download it on Linux, but I cannot for the life of me operate that thing so…

If you would like to get some actual intellectual knowledge (that some of you may believe is common sense, which is true), remember that programmer vs coder thing? Well, in school, there might be this thing that teaches you something that may incorporate the existence of coding. Computer science, they might call it. Translation: you learn how to program and the coding language that you learn is irrelevant, therefore, you will learn 5+ coding languages in your program or course which, of course, you will not master unless you want to master it. Welcome to the world of programming. You only need basic coding knowledge to survive. Good luck, though, if you only know basic coding knowledge. You may need to look up codes when you want to execute your master plan. Seriously, though, there’s a good video for aspiring programmers on YouTube (of course). It’s called something like “How to think like a programmer”. One hour of your life, but worth it.

Now, failure is not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve learned a lot from those fails, and even if coding (and programming) were not for me, I still have more knowledge than those that want to code (or program) but sit there doing nothing about it. I know one too many people (whom I might be friends with) that know more about coding and programming than me, mostly because they’ve taken courses in school or they are incredibly into the world of coding and programming. One kid I know from middle school is like, pro (since middle school) or something (smart kid). So, well, I may never be as good as them, but I know more than those that sit static. Maybe when I’m a hundred, I might think back and think of coding (and programming) as one of the many things I tried in my younger years. I do not regret trying and failing, but I do know that I would’ve regretted failing to try (I think someone like Michael Jordan said something like that). I mean, I am pretty young and have the time and nothing to lose, but I encourage you, as well, to try something you’ve been putting off for the past…say month. That may be learning something, that may also be renovating your home (please remember to keep in mind a budget) or some other project you’ve always wanted to start but, well, you’ve been procrastinating on getting started (I tried putting it nicely). When you’re a hundred, you won’t regret starting something you badly wanted to try.

Thanks for sticking this long, and I hope you have a great week! 😁 

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