Ask HN: How many of you non-tech people wanted to learn to code and gave up

71 点作者 sathishmanohar将近 9 年前

I'm wondering what makes people give up on learning to code even when they know the value in it. Why did you give up on learning to code even after you started highly motivated.

21 条评论

reitanqild将近 9 年前

I didn't give up but I have to admit I felt quite useless after finishing higher education.I understand that higher education isn't there to teach you VB or Java but to teach you the principles... but IMO it certainly wouldn't hurt if there was some connection to real life.I came in as someone who had already coded a while. I was best in class in several subjects IIRC, helped others but felt like I could never have a career in Java.The reasons?We were never taught how to work efficiently. Or rather: teachers actively restricted access to sane environments.Code was supposed to be written in an old unsupported text editor.For many of us this very smart idea teachers has about teaching things "from ground up" has the nasty side effect of demotivating many of the best students to the point where you consider doing something else.I never even dared to apply for a Java job and only started after being picked up. I remember telling my first boss the truth: yes, I have been coding since I was a kid and yes I have passed Java in school but I cannot program it. Luckily he gave it a try and with good colleagues Java soon became my personal favourite.

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anysz将近 9 年前

I'm a Canadian with no Bachelor's and I started to learn how to code over a year ago to work in the field.I learned the fundamentals of Ruby on Rails with Michael Hartl's tutorial and built an e-commerce application on Heroku from scratch (html/css/js/jquery/postgresql) It featured an admin panel, inventory management, user accounts and a reasonable RSpec test suite. It took me about 3 months of plowing 90hours+/week. I used it as a portfolio application to start looking for jobs. After blasting hundreds of resumes (>600), I got about 20 interviews. None of them worked out except for two unpaid internships which I financially could not accept.I gave up Rails, but I didn't give up coding, so I asked the internet what was more likely than Rails to land me a job? iOS was probably more niche and more in demand. So I spent a month learning the basics of iOS development with Swift and released 2 apps on the App Store over the following 6 months (build-learn-build-learn cycle), both using Parse, Firebase and a panoply of 3rd party APIs. They were well architected (imo) using fundamental OOP principles, as well as the classic iOS patterns, singleton, observer etc.This time I sent over 3 thousand resumes over the course of 5 months, all over the world: Canada, USA, Mexico, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Argentina... you name it.I got 2 remote pair-programming sessions, which I nailed, I also got about 8 coding assignments, which I completed within hours of receiving the instructions (4 of which never even had the decency to respond or give feedback). All in all response was the same. I even got a couple of absolutely ridiculous contract offers such as building a full fledged real time web and iOS landlord/tenant management system for 2000$, solo.Without trying to start a pity party, I am now doing manual labor on a curtain assembly line, going door to door after my shifts trying to sell Wordpress websites, which are easiest to setup and sell.I guess I had to stop coding because I couldn't find a job, because it takes up time I don't have and even though I am passionate about it, passion doesn't pay the bills.

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katpas将近 9 年前

I started out with Codecademy and gave up lots of times (over about 6 months) before I decided to commit to learning full time.My plan was to lock myself in a room for 3 months and teach myself Python, I ended up doing an in person course in Javascript (one of the rare free ones). Learning with peers and some support made the whole thing a lot less gruelling. Before that I would get stuck on very simple things for hours and hours not knowing what to google to find the way out of it.I wrote about this in article a little while ago if you're interested in the full process I went through. Note (I didn't choose the title for this) - <a href="http://www.gadgette.com/2016/02/19/how-i-learnt-to-code-in-a-scarily-short-space-of-time/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gadgette.com/2016/02/19/how-i-learnt-to-code-in-a...</a>

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bloaf将近 9 年前

Engineering grad student here:1. Learned to code some C# in an attempt to distribute some of my simulations to other computers. Had a great time and managed to get something good enough up and running.2. Tried to pick up Haskell because I liked some of the ideas, and had a few projects I was interested in trying to do in a functional language. Had a bad time and quit after ~2 weeks. The environment and tools were garbage. I thought the old by-engineers-for-engineers software I used to build research models was user-unfriendly, but I guess that was just because I had never tried to work with the software programmers build for each other.

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scandox将近 9 年前

I think the reason that many smart people don't stick with programming is because a fundamental part of the job is struggling with intellectually trivial incantations specific to some configuration/OS/Language/Tooling.I am a programmer and I have a lot of patience for that stuff. But I don't why I do, because objectively speaking it's crazy to spend hours ingesting this kind of ultra-specific, non-reuseable information.

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salemh将近 9 年前

I used to work in spreadsheets all day, or at least, 70% of the time, I'd have to collate 50x spreadsheets information into a singular summary page, etc.I worked through ~20% of "Learn Python the Hard Way", then later, the intro CS 101 of Udacity which has a Python intro, as I wanted to be able to do more then vlookups and complex workarounds for Excel sheets.My new career is in marketing automation, so I did some tutorials online, and bought a SQL book to pull PL/SQL queries for data segmentation. I also picked up HTML/CSS, but don't have any reason to really use Jscript. I can read it, and trouble shoot in some landing page uses, but I don't need it.Learning to code was always a supplemental goal for career growth, and I find it fun. I was that IRC guy who loved scripting simple tasks like a music player/displayer, k/b wars, etc.However, when I'm actually diving into learning actual code, I don't enjoy it. I don't think I'm built for it, just as I don't grok statistics, yet my sibling is a actuarial scientist, but he gets confused about things that come naturally to me.Being in Marketing Automation, its more relevant for me to do "continued" (outside of work) education not in coding, but in platform research (Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo), more SQL/data management (I am reading "Object Technology: a Manager Guide), and certifications in these platforms.

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DrNuke将近 9 年前

Coding for coding is irrelevant for non-techies and rightly so: outsourcing is so cheap nowadays. Coding in order to do something relevant within their particular field of knowledge is their main point and may be worth the fuss.

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pappyo将近 9 年前

I had two problems while teaching myself how to code; I'm not that passionate about it, and learning technical disciplines on line is not how I learn.I viewed coding as a means to an end. Learn to code-->start a business-->get investors-->pay someone else to code. I didn't care much about what I was learning, only that what I was learning could potentially fulfill other goals. That, in and of itself, wouldn't necessarily deter someone from learning how to code, only...I struggled learning through on-line tutorials (Code Academy et al). It's not how I learn. That was unfortunate, seeing that coding community spearheads this type of learning. I realized that if I wanted to make it work, I'd have to register for a class. Then I became scared that maybe the struggles wouldn't persist past on-line and I'd be financially committed to it. I wasn't willing to take that risk.

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MrJagil将近 9 年前

Classes in Javascript were really hard for me for some reason, and I've never really passed that point. Also, the fact that programming is not solving anything by itself, you need to know the entire stack. After wrestling with classes for a while it's really demotivating to realise you have to know DNS, server-side languages, http_S_ and all sorts of things before you can actually create your app/website. It was just a bit too much for me.Codecademy did a good job though and <a href="http://www.theodinproject.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theodinproject.com/</a> too.EDIT: Also, the job prospects did not look too good because of the fierce competition. What motivated me was doing my own apps/sites (lego for grown-ups), or at least work on a startup, but the required resumes were really daunting. Sysadmin just didn't have the rockstar flavour to it (I think it's a fine job, just trying to convey the fact that a certain air of adventure needed to be present to lure me to stick with it- i.e. the same reason 13 year olds learn the electric guitar).

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touchofevil将近 9 年前

I've made a couple of attempts and I'm about to make another attempt to learn to code. I think the problem I run into the most is that a lot of the online learning is not project based, or takes too long to get started on a project. For example, I started the TeamTreehouse Flask Track and it takes a while before their tutorials challenge you to actually start building a site with Flask. I signed up for onemonth.com and I liked their approach much better, where you just dive in and start building something from the beginning. However, the OneMonth Python/Django course that I was taking shutdown right in the middle of the course I was taking, due to problems with the course material. It's also been very difficult to choose a language/framework, but I think I've settled on Python/Django. I'm thinking that I will resume my Flask course at TeamTreehouse and also give Code4Startup.com's new Django course a try.

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caseymarquis将近 9 年前

I've given up at many points over the last 9 years. I now program "professionally". I work on full stack web applications, networked desktop applications, and recently embedded applications.The primary reason I gave up was that I wasn't willing to accept the amount of effort which needed to be put in to get the level of results that I wanted. I just couldn't comprehend that the skills I wanted to have required years of commitment.The advice that I'd give would be to understand that this is a huge task. You won't learn everything quickly; even if you're very bright; even if you spend 14 hours a day on it. Those things will help, but they aren't the key.If you want to be a good programmer you need to love learning. It's not about being clever, it's about being persistent. You constantly need to learn new tools and frameworks, and occasionally new languages. You need to understand the technologies you're interacting with and how they work. And you need to take all those tools, frameworks, languages, and technologies and use them daily.But mostly you need to invest the time.Don't give up if you let a big project go because it's too difficult, or don't understand something, or spend two weeks on something you thought would take an hour. Be disappointed, sure. But don't quit.Keep going. Keep learning. Keep on picking up just a small amount of knowledge or skill each day.In a year things that now seem complex will be obvious. And that will happen again and again every year that you continue learning. Eventually, your failed projects will turn into completed projects, but it could take years for this to start happening depending on how ambitious the projects were. You can't let that stop you. You just have to keep going despite it.So keep going. But realize it's a long, slow, life-time commitment to constant learning. It's not easy. Even if you've been good at everything else in life, there's no exception for you. Mastery and skill will only come with significant time and effort. But they will come.Also learn vim. That sh*t is awesome.

fierycatnet将近 9 年前

I was messing with programming for years now but I can't manage build anything worthwhile, even for my own amusement. I was CS major but I got burned out on high level math and I switched majors.Through out these years it's always been a struggle to learn to code and finish something. I've done some basic problems, some Project Euler, etc. I did countless tutorials, it just doesn't stick for me. I've been through so many languages that I can't even remember them all, name it and there's good chance that I've read a book on it.It also seems like there is so many tools and programming today is so convoluted and over engineered that I just get overwhelmed. I also don't have anyone to talk about programming, I am just spinning wheels solo and get frustrated when I get stuck.Right now I am giving my last chance of learning to code. I found out Lisp and eventually Clojure. It seems more straightforward and simple, there are no 'design patterns' to remember and break my head with. I feel like I can slowly build something from bottom up. I have high hopes for Arachne upcoming framework. I hope it will be accessible and I'll be able to make SPAs sites.But yeah, I feel like I've burned out on this. I just get frustrated with code most of the time when I can't come up with a simple solution.

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exolymph将近 9 年前

I've dabbled a bit with various online courses, and concluded that coding just doesn't spark my intellectual interest enough for me to get into it fully. Wrote about this, actually: <a href="http://sonyaellenmann.com/2015/12/its-okay-to-not-learn-how-to-code.html" rel="nofollow">http://sonyaellenmann.com/2015/12/its-okay-to-not-learn-how-...</a>

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votingprawn将近 9 年前

Years ago I started coding qbasic with a photocopy of a book given to me by a friend of the family.I progressed from there to medicore competency in PHP, rails, and c++. Then I went to university to study comp Sci...but almost immediately switched to aerospace engineering, and my coding skills plateaued.By that I mean I can write basic stuff in all sorts of languages, but I'm miles away from writing a compete program or anything user friendly. Most of my code these days revolves around automating various things in the most sensible language. Where sensible often means something the next non-coding engineer to come along can understand.I guess I stopped because I knew enough to do what I currently need to do. I'm content that, given time, I could learn to be a better coder. But at the same time I avoid jobs in my industry that are suited to decent coders because I know there are more suitable people for the role.Every so often try to pick up some "hobby coding" but find that I don't really enjoy it like I did as a teenager.

Santosh83将近 9 年前

I'm an artist and since I've always been fairly interested in science in general too, I decided to teach myself HTML and CSS to code up my own site from scratch, for hosting my art (and miscellaneous other things). Am currently going to start learning CSS Flexbox that everyone's talking about, so that all parts of my site can be rendered form-factor independently. My plan is also to teach myself Javascript after CSS although I've no current need for any JS on my simple site. I did teach myself C years before and successfully worked my way through K&R2, but since professionally I was headed in a different direction I saw no reason to go further. Can't say I've given up on coding except for a short attempt at Java (again ~10 years back) which I gave up quickly since coming from the simplicity of C it seemed rather bewildering to me (at that time).

pythonscheme将近 9 年前

I am having some problems with magic methods in Python. They are defined inside a class using built-in functions and are not directly callable. What are some helpful resources with this topic? Thanks.

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fmilne将近 9 年前

The only online curriculum I have had success with was: <a href="http://www.javascriptissexy.com/how-to-learn-javascript-properly/" rel="nofollow">http://www.javascriptissexy.com/how-to-learn-javascript-prop...</a>The reason it clicked was because at the time, a colleague offered to mentor me. This helped since he would assign me cases related to my skill level, show me how to ask better questions, and explain how things worked in context to our tech stack.

elbear将近 9 年前

First time I stopped, because I got stuck. I didn't have Internet at home, so I had nobody to ask for help. Second time I stopped, because of university exams. I was studying something completely different at the university and when exams came, I dropped the programming and didn't pick it up after. Third time was the lucky one. I made programming my most important priority and I didn't stop. Also, I had Internet, so I could ask for help.

giarc将近 9 年前

Because it was free.I tried many of the free options out there but whenever I hit a roadblock I just quit because I had nothing to lose. I paid $30 or so for a swift course and never stopped because I had paid money. It's a tiny amount of money but I felt like I had to see it through since I paid money. I now have 2 apps in the app store, with another on the way this week likely.

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ftwynn将近 9 年前

I've started and stopped a number of times. Mostly I don't have an itch to scratch that pushes me to make anything interesting.I find myself particularly struggling when language walkthroughs get to libraries and code organization. Follow all the paths and dependencies is really tough for me.