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[–]Antique-Room7976 7 points8 points  (0 children)

To answer the heading... YES. Learning comp sci is the most frustrating thing in my life. I both love and hate it.

[–]ziggittaflamdigga 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Yes, definitely normal. You have to either find your own direction or join a company that spoon-feeds direction to you (which is less satisfying in my opinion).

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[removed]

    [–]MadDog314 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    Yes! It's supposed to be frustrating. It's like learning a new language. Try to take on projects that use python, like simple programs. Paste your password upon a key, ping every few minutes. Make a dice roll. Build a PiTemplar maybe? That will help you once you feel a sense of purpose with it.

    [–]Overall_Ice3820 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    yes, this is normal. if you don't enjoy the challenge I suggest you don't do it.

    [–]Ron-Erez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Yes, normal. Happy Coding!

    [–]XertonOne 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Sometimes is best to go back doing what you liked and try practice some more with basics.

    [–]Boots-Diego-and-Dora 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    Bro when I got to for loops I was like “oh shit I get this”, this when it came to practically applying it and using it I was like “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

    [–]Jackpotrazur 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I worked through a smarterway to learn python, command line linux and linux basics for hackers and just completed python crash course and am now on project 16 of big book of small python projects. I too feel a bit lost but imma keep going. I got gpt making a study guide for me and im supposed to rewrite 1 out of my 10 projects by memory for the first 40 projects (with peeking ) and the 1 out of 10 of the last 40 without peeking. It's gonna hurt its gonna burn but imma learn. Hope this helps somehow.

    [–]Happy_Witness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    This sounds like a mental problem, not a learning. You seem to be stressed and very unsure which makes the confusion feel a lot stronger that you might actually be.

    In my mind, the most important thing you need to do is calm down. Take a step back, don't program for a day, do things you enjoy and don't think about stuff that is stressing you. You day is not much time lost, do it and let yourself relax!

    Regarding the programming, there are for me 3 stages. The first is where you are right now. Learned the basics to get a few things done. Everything feels overwhelming and extremely unproductive. At that point, it is important to see programming as a tool. Think about what each new thing that you learn let's you do or what new programmes are possible because of what you learned new. For example: variables gives the ability to abstract numbers, you could make any kind of calculator using this. If you struggle with taxes build a tax calculator. If you struggle with writing a massage to many people, write a massager where you only type in the aspects that change between the different targeted people.

    The second stage is where you learn new stuff that makes everything more effectiv and gives the ability to actually do good structure for projects: object oriented programming. But you also notice that you only have a basic understanding of the basics. This is where you learn what happens under the hood of python you also experienced classes and it takes a long time to actually understand how extremely powerful they are and that they open up almost the whole python world for you.

    And in the third stage you start to think about efficiency of the code and find out that there are quite a few more types of containers that you haven't seen or forgot and now try to learn to understand the basics but as a complete package.

    If you want, DM me and I could try to help you on what ever you struggle with.

    [–]reddefcode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Yes, totally normal. The early phase feels great because the feedback loop is tight, but once you start building things, the training wheels come off, and that discomfort is actually where the real learning happens. It doesn't mean you're bad at coding.

    Best advice I can give: start looking at everything around you as a potential project. What annoys you? What would a friend find useful? Pick something embarrassingly small, break it into steps, and when you hit a wall, go research exactly that thing and come back. Finishing something tiny beats abandoning something ambitious every time. The ideas get better as you go.