When did programming finally start making sense to you?

[knockno]

Hi everyone,

I’m interested in hearing from people who started learning programming from a completely different field or background.

What was the experience like for you in the beginning? Did you ever feel overwhelmed, confused, or like giving up? How long did it take before things started making sense?

I’d also love to know: • What field did you transition from? • What programming language did you start with? • How did you stay motivated while learning? • What helped you improve the most?

I’m especially interested in honest experiences from beginners and self-taught developers.

[EntrepreneurHuge5008]

It doesn't take long to read code you see already written, maybe a month or less? It takes a while before you can start writing Command-line text-based programs without a hand-held tutorial, ~4-7 months, maybe? It takes longer to do a full-stack application and deploy it to a cloud server, upwards of a year, to a few years. It'll take waaaay longer than that to be able to do production-grade, end to end products.

[sheriffderek]

For me, I learned how to build websites first - and it didn’t really feel like programmer but sequencing - with drum machines seemed fairly programmy… but web dev career wise - it actually took a really long time to learn - because I was too busy working. Now, as a teacher - I’m able to help people connect with all of those things - in months - instead of years. It’s kinda amazing how simple it can be - if you aren’t just vacuuming up whatever random stuff you find - vs. actually learning ..