You Don’t Have to Be Brilliant to Learn How to Code

You don’t have to be a genius …

Wait? What? I thought you had to know how to calculate the second derivative, then calculate the momentum, then use a few formulas, and then you’d have code.

Not quite. It may be simpler than that.

Felix, you mean anyone can learn how to code?

Yes, and I will explain why …

I know I may exaggerate a little bit at the beginning, but really, I believe that anyone can learn how to code.

Also, to all of the admirers of the Math and Physics disciplines, no worries. I wasn’t mocking you. I‘m just making the point that learning how to code is more straightforward than it seems.

I like Math and Physics, and I admire all the value physicians and Mathematicians have added to our society.

(Gauss, anyone?)

Likewise, I am not making fun of animals by using the picture at the beginning of this article. Again, it’s to make the point that anyone can code.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s address this misconception …

It’s a topic that I want to discuss, as I have talked to people who have not started learning how to code because they think you have to have unique qualities to learn.

Through the years, learning how to code myself and working as a computer science tutor and teacher, I have worked alongside various students and gone through the learning process myself. I have helped complete beginners, as well as more experienced students in the computer programming discipline.

Consequently, I’ve had the excellent opportunity to help and mentor students through their learning journeys when it comes to writing code. Also, in my personal experience, I’ve had the chance to go through the process of learning how to code as a complete beginner myself.

I have concluded that you don’t have to be super smart to learn how to code. Sure, it does help to learn the concepts, but having other qualities can help you learn how to code as well.

So today, I’m going to elaborate on these qualities. I’ll also share some things I’ve learned through my coding journey that may help you get over a slump you may be stuck in while learning how to code and keep going in this incredible journey.

Also, if you feel intimidated by the act of writing computer code because it looks like just a bunch of numbers and cryptic codes in the screen, I hope this article may positively impact you and change your perspective when it comes to learning how to code.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Consistency and Perseverance Are Essential

As the years have gone by, I have found that being consistent and perseverant can help you in the process of learning how to write code and develop computer programs. For instance, when you encounter a bug in your code, which you probably will at some point during your journey.

I believe that perseverance helps a lot to increase the chances of being successful in learning how to code. It’s crucial not to give up when you encounter an error that you can’t fix. Sure, it may take hours, days, or even weeks to fix it, but if you give up, you’ll never figure out what’s wrong with your code.

Perseverance can be even more important when the code you are working has a deadline you have to comply to, regardless if you are handing the code as part of a school assignment or a task at your job. For example, when working on a software application that’s just not working for some reason, perseverance is key.

You debug deeper and deeper, but you just can’t find the error. Is it that the frontend is not connecting to the backend properly? Or if you are writing a computer program for an academic assignment, is it a semicolon you are missing?

Thus, being perseverant in dissecting the code until you find the solution is essential to learning how to code and writing computer programs in general, in my opinion.

Now, where does consistency have a role in this process?

Well, I believe that consistency helps a lot right from the start of the learning process. From my personal experience when I was learning computer programming-related concepts, practicing consistently is vital for mastering programming concepts, such as variables, decision structures (if-else statements and such), loops and other fundamental ideas. You get the most out of these concepts, in my experience, by combining them and applying them consistently to solve a problem or even developing a software application.

As a result, the more you rinse and repeat the process of applying these concepts, the faster you learn and dominate the concepts when learning how to code. That’s what happened to me in my coding journey as a beginner.

The Desire and Curiosity to Learn Can Do Wonders

Alongside consistency and perseverance, the desire and the curiosity to learn is also essential in learning how to code. As I’ve seen through the years, the desire to learn can help students push through when encountering bugs in their code.

Curiosity is the spark and desire is the fire

The desire and willingness to learn can help students keep learning other programming languages, especially when they’re very different from each other. Furthermore, the desire to keep learning how to code can help students stay open-minded to learning a new way to write code to solve the same problem.

Self-Awareness Can Help, a Lot

How can being self-aware help when learning how to code? Well, let me explain what I mean.

When I began learning how to write computer programs years ago, I began to notice that there were ways for me to learn effectively, like combining two things, understanding the theory behind the concepts and applying them by solving problems. As I understood the idea, I went right ahead and start doing practice problems and writing the code for the solution. Thus, I divided my learning time into two sessions, which helped me a lot.

I also noticed that if I didn’t repeat this process of dividing into theory and practice sessions, I would forget the programming-related concepts I invested time and energy learning. Furthermore, the more time I had between sessions, the higher the chances were for me to forget the concepts.

In hindsight, if I didn’t notice this about myself and how I learned most effectively, I believe that it would take even more time for me to learn how to code.

Hence, self-awareness has helped me a lot.

Conclusion

Throughout the years, I have learned that anyone can learn how to code if you have the desire to learn, practice consistently, and persevere. Intelligence can help you learn how to code, but for the long term, you need to persevere and practice consistently. Also, the desire and motivation to learn can really help you push forward when learning new programming related concepts and ideas.

However, these are my observations, experiences, and opinions; I understand everyone is different.

I hope this helps you think about the process of learning differently. If you are intimidated about learning how to write computer code, then I say to you, don’t do it. You can only do it if you really want to.

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. :)

As always, don’t forget to follow me and click on the applause button, so you don’t miss content that can help you in some way in along your coding journey.

Credits and thank you to:

Photo by Aleksandar Cvetanović from Pexels

Resources:

What is Self-Awareness and Why is it Important? [+5 Ways to Increase It]

Disclaimer: Results may vary. These tips and advice are based on my experience and opinion as a former undergraduate Computer Science student, tutor, teacher, and software developer. Everyone is different, so, the advice shared in this article may or may not work for you.

Originally published at https://yadielcabrera.com.