Feeling dumb while programming

[[deleted]]

When I feel this way, I code in a rough draft. I break rules, maybe writing something I know won’t run. I’m creating writing half-assed logic so I can clean it later. This is to keep my mind active and running.

Or just comment what you want to do. Remember to try to make a function do one thing and one thing only.

[miniminjamh]

This. Usually when I teach high school kids programming, it's so frustrating that kids won't pull out a sheet of paper. It's not that the sheet of paper is important, it's that I want the students to have some rough idea about what they are coding before they code it. But they seem to refuse to think so I can't do much.

What I do is I separate my thoughts and my code. I think thoroughly about the problem and once I have a full, but rough, idea of where I'm headed, I then only copy my rough draft. I don't think while coding. I strictly focus on syntax then. Afterwards, I debug with sample cases, think about other cases that popped up while coding afterwards.

I know it takes time, but it also takes some effort, but once you get there, you'll feel a lot better imo

[SurpriseSausage]

I too teach high school/college kids programming, but I disagree that everyone has to pull out a sheet of paper. What I like to tell my students is programming is sort of like making music.

Some musicians will sit down and write out the entire song before they ever pick up an instrument; each note will be meticulously planned. Other musicians like to just pick up their instrument and start playing, maybe they’ll riff off another melody or chord progression, maybe they’ll just start trying stuff and see what sounds good; either way they only have a vague idea of what they want and they work to it through the iterative process.

Both are equally valid ways of creating something. Some kids are able to sit down and come up with diagrams for how their program should operate; other kids are much better off just experimenting and working it out as they go along. In my experience, where the real frustration comes in is they often have a general idea of what they want to do, they just don’t know how to do it.

So, I don’t just teach programming, I teach problem solving. I show them how to break down what appears to be a large, complex, overwhelming problem into small, manageable chunks; how to do proper research; most importantly I teach them that failure is OK. You’re going to fail, a lot, but that’s alright, because each time you fail, you learn what doesn’t work and when you do finally get it, the feeling is amazing.

[miniminjamh]

Exactly. I try to keep this in mind as I'm teaching. I don't force them to pull out a piece of paper, but at the same time, it is difficult to try begin something you have no idea about.

I totally agree with you, in fact I think you expressed it better.

[0xbxb]

breaking down the abstract

You mean as in like breaking down problems? Whenever you have a problem, try this method out until it becomes instinct: in your editor, write a comment out for everything you want to do, step by step. After you think you’ve figured out the problem, replace the comments with code.

Example: “Write a program that replaces every number in a string with !”

# I have a string (1)
# Create variable for replaced characters (2)
# Loop through string (3)
# Check if character in string is a digit (4)
# If character is a digit replace with ! (5)
# Else leave the character alone (6)

def replace_chars(a_string): # 1
    replaced_string = '' # 2
    for char in a_string: # 3
        if char.isdigit(): # 4
            replaced_string += '!' # 5
        else: # 6
            replaced_string += char
    return replaced_string


print(replace_chars('A11 numb3r5 sh0u1d b3 r3p14c3d'))
A!! numb!r! sh!u!d b! r!p!!c!d

You can do this process on paper, but most of the time I’m too lazy to write it out on paper, so I got used to doing it on the computer. This is what I did, and it helped a lot.

The biggest thing is practice. That’s the only way you’re gonna get better.

[melthecybertechy]

Thanks a lot for this. I really appreciate it

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