Learning programming: why I decided to start this journey and what I have found out about programming so far …
When the pandemic started last year, for the fist time in years I got a chance to slow down and reflect on what I miss in my work life and what I would like to change. I realised that my current job was not bringing me as much joy and satisfaction as it used to. So, I decided to do something different with my life.
I’ve always had some assumptions about programming and never have thought that it would be something that would interest me. However, after my partner introduced me to some basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript, I realised I was wrong about many things. I loved playing with HTML and CSS in my free time, tried some free courses online and eventually decided to join a frontend development bootcamp.
Below I just a few of my initial assumptions about programming I had before I started coding and couple of surprising discoveries I have made so far.
Assumption #1: Programming is a lonely journey
My first assumption was that all programmers sit in some dark room completely on their own and never have a chance for interaction, discussion and exchange of opinions. Well, this assumption was quickly shattered when the pandemic started, we all started working from home and I realised that my partner talks to his fellow programmers all the time. They do work on problem solving together and discuss different solutions.
In the bootcamp, we are teamed up quite often to work on the same project, which I believe makes us better programmers. When I have individual tasks I can easily reach out to my teammates, classmates or to the global programming community on StackOverflow and get suggestion, alternative solutions and opinions about my code if not within seconds but within minutes for sure.
This was a huge surprise and I absolutely love it!
Assumption #2: to learn programming you have to be good in math
Before starting my course I thought that to become a programme one has to be a math genius. I have been studying for 12 weeks now and have created some really cool projects, and I have to say, I did not have a need for some tremendous math skills so far.
One needs to understand how logical operators work, and we do JavaScript training exercises that require some understanding of math, but it is definitely not at the level of a genius!
Assumption #3: coding is boring and not creative
Everyone has their own understanding of what is boring and what is not, but if one likes problem solving and intellectual challenges, coding is certainly a thing to go for!!
I realised that it is a lot of fun for me to solve coding challenges, to be able to understand what is going on in somebody else’s code and to come up with alternative solutions to the same problem.
It is also a very creative process. Seeing the result of your work right away in the browser, gives me lots of joy and satisfaction. And I am sure, those working in backend find their ways of being creative!
We are starting with backend programming soon and I can’t way to explore it!