A chat with my sister about learning to code really got me thinking

I was telling my sister, who's a teacher, about my plan to learn Python. I said I was going to start with a big, thick book I bought, because I wanted to learn the 'right' way from the ground up. She just looked at me and said, 'Charlie, you learn to swim by getting in the water, not by reading a book about water molecules.' That hit different. I realized I was putting up a huge barrier for myself before I'd even written a single line of code. She argued that beginners should just pick a small project, like a number guessing game, and figure it out with help from online guides, even if the code is messy. I always thought you needed a perfect foundation first. Now I'm torn between the 'learn by doing' method and the 'learn the theory first' approach. Which way actually works better for a total newbie who might get frustrated and quit?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat6391mo ago

Your sister is totally right, it's like wanting to learn guitar but refusing to touch one until you know all the music theory. People do that with everything now, it's a trap. Just start making the guessing game, you'll figure out the gaps as you go.

thomas.piper1mo ago

That swimming analogy is perfect... I read a blog post once that called the "perfect foundation first" thing "tutorial hell." You just spin your wheels. Pat639 is right about the guitar too. For coding, you need the small wins, like getting a working guessing game, even if the code is ugly. The theory makes way more sense after you've made a few messes yourself.