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Ask HN: How long did it take to learn your first programming language?

1 pointsby mandown2308over 3 years ago
I'm taking an online course in Python and it is a lot to take in. Wondering for those who learnt their first language online, how long did it take to complete and learn all the stuff?

4 comments

garmaineover 3 years ago
Learning a programming language is easy. Learning software engineering takes months even just for the basics. The first time you learn to code, you’re doing both. Just hang in there: it gets easier with time.
gerardnicoover 3 years ago
There is a rule for that<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ten_Year_Rule" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ten_Year_Rule</a>
mandown2308over 3 years ago
Thank you gilbertmpanga for your answer.
gilbertmpanga12over 3 years ago
I failed countless times always procrastinating and getting intimidated.<p>My journey: I learned about html and it clicked fast then got introduced to C &amp; C++, but shit was so hard I didn&#x27;t know what I was typing even<p>Then I moved to C# , installed Vs studio but still things weren&#x27;t clicking<p>A friend suggested python is easiest , but when I tried I got discouraged, I didn&#x27;t know how indenting worked, most of my programs failed so I dropped it.<p>Then I attempted again with JavaScript, early days of react js when SPAs were hot, I still failed. Angular js was more easier but still couldn&#x27;t put up anything.<p>I gave up and took a break, that was after failing for a whole year, nothing clicking.<p>I tried again the following year, and that&#x27;s when I heard about ruby and rails. I downloaded Learn enough rails to be dangerous, and walked through the tutorial step by step, finished my twitter clone, was amazed that I had a twitter clone!<p>This inspired me to learn more, there&#x27;s a way ruby abstracted simple concepts into readable syntax , non scary cryptic stuff. It was almost like plain English.<p>This made me realize why I was failing, the languages I had started with introduced advanced concepts so fast without telling you why such things exist in the first place.<p>I mean writing a class just to print first hello world is such an overkill. Plus many languages use strange symbols &amp; syntax that look intimidating.<p>Now, I can learn any language in just minutes or a day. Overall it took me 1 year and about 6 months . More solid knowledge has been learned on working on projects at companies<p>All the best