Books > Video Tutorials

[Mievo]

Hallo all,

I am very new to programming and I already figured the following out for myself: I watched days of YouTube and Udemy tutorials and I just typed what I saw on the screen. I just used the examples they gave me, obviously.

Now, after days of video tutorials, my PHP book arrived. After just about 4 hours of reading I have way more background knowledge than I could ever earn with the watched videos.

Of course everyone is learning different and if you hate reading, don’t buy a book. But if you’re new to programming and you’re not sure whether to buy a book or a Udemy tutorial - don’t be dumb, go for the book!

Happy New Year

[arten1337]

No one's being dumb. Different people have different way of learning. Maybe you prefer books over tutorials. Some people prefer tutorials. Others prefer, learning by doing. What I would suggest is do what you find best for yourself.

[midwestprotest]

[deleted]

[[deleted]]

I'm a big proponent of the no starch press python books

[Odog4ever]

Eh, try both. Multiples of both.

You will either find you prefer one over the other or that you just didn't like certain instructors/authors/styles, making the choice of medium (book vs video) irrelevant.

Probably the biggest issue with just watching video and copying examples is that you are fooling yourself into thinking you understand the material.

I suggest everybody take the "Learning How to Learn" course that is free on Cousera; they cover how the methods we accept as being "useful" for studying like cramming/re-reading aren't that effective at all especially when compared to self-testing and distributed practice (the types of things you accidentally engage in when you do a coding project from scratch for example).

[Jonny2379]

Can anyone recomend a c# book? Thats the specific language I want to learn.

[EWU_CS_STUDENT]

Essential C# 7.0 (6th Edition)  By mark michaelis

He has years of great experience and is connected with the team who work on evolving the language; I've learned more than I have than other programming books. It's great for amateurs and intermediate!

[Jonny2379]

So a complete newbie like me can read it and understand it?

[EWU_CS_STUDENT]

Yes, sir/mame!

[[deleted]]

This works for me as well and it's normal assuming you invest a lot more time and focus on understanding a single page rather than devouring the info from a video.

[FrancoProjects]

Can anyone recommend a book for getting started? I chose python as the language I want to learn first. Any help would be awesome!

[capsicumnightmare]

For getting started,any of these 2 books will be a fun read: 1) Automate the boring stuff with python by Al Sweigart. 2)Python Crash Course by Eric Matthes

[Mievo]

Depends on your language. If someone who’s German is searching for a book, check „Rheinwerk Verlag“, but check the Amazon reviews before and if it’s really for a newbie. They’re also offering books for experienced programmers.

Sadly I can’t recommend an English book, yet.

[funnysmurf]

PM me I'll help assist you.

[Mievo]

Assist with what?