cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24857168

I would like to code for a living and to contribute to open source projects and things, but my coding skills are absolute shit after taking online courses and watching video tutorials. How can I learn to code for real?

What I would like to learn is algorithms, web development (“full stack”), how layouts work (both in like kotlin compose and HTML) and how to read other peoples code. Maybe thats more than I can chew, but its probably good for me to try out many things before getting settled on one.

Now I have been coding for a while already (~ 4 years), but I kind of feel like I need more guidance to be able to actually create code that works as intended intentionally, and not through trial and error / stack overflow. As for what level i am at, CS50 is probably my only qualification, I have played around with APIs (I.E. making discord bots), and made some html “apps” (horribly made, but things like the “genius” game and a calculator) and “prototype” react websites (as in, really bare bones, barely working).

I do plan on taking CS or something similar, but i’m not yet in college, and I would like to have a good head start before getting there.

Sorry for my bad English, and any help is appreciated.

  • Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org
    121·
    2 days ago

    i hate this joke.

    yes, trial and error is part of the process, but that does not mean we are bumbling fools that don’t know how or why things work. trial and error is part of any complex endeavour or learning new things.

    when i started programming i struggled with getting stuff to compile, because i didn’t know the language i was using well, i later struggled with getting my code to work on other machines because i didn’t understood how to package it.

    we absolutely get more competent, but we use complex tools to do complex stuff and we seldom have to produce the exact same thing twice, so of course we often find ourselves in somewhat uncharted territory.

    • model_tar_gz@lemmy.world
      43·
      2 days ago

      Chill, hatred is too strong for this. Jokes are rooted in reality but that doesn’t mean that they describe the full reality.

      I’ve been programming and tinkering with computing systems for a long time. Every time I start a new project with some new tech, I end up with 1000 tabs open in various mixtures of docs, AI, stackoverflow, reddit; and discord, slack; etc. hunting for answers or resolutions to similar situation to some particular nuanced problem I’m experiencing. It doesn’t mean that I’m an idiot just that I’m trying to do something that I haven’t done before.

      It’s taken me many cycles to break myself out of the samsara loops of “I don’t know how to do this so I suck.” Imposter Syndrome is real but eventually we work through it to a healthy perspective of “I don’t know how to do this… yet, but I’m going to have to struggle through it to earn this knowledge.”

      • Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org
        4·
        2 days ago

        that this does not make us fools is exactly what i wrote.

        i am just tired of that “joke” that developers don’t understand their own work. its neither funny nor does it help anyone.