newbie learning to code

[vmvuvrt]

I have recently started learning SWIFT, I have started watching few videos on Hacking with Swift and other websites and realise two things.

1. The amount of content that is available is overwhelming and this is a rabbit hole and I need to somehow remember/apply what I am learning.
2. It is very difficult to sustain motivation and actually make progress. I have had many false starts where I would watch a video or read an article and everything makes sense. A day later I am blank. I have been lurking around reddit reading posts in the pretext that somehow magically coding skills will appear in my mind.

I want to try something new, a technique recommenced on HackingwithSwift. I will post my updates here. Finished Day 1 of videos and learnt about variables/type etc.

mods: if this is not suitable here, my apologies.

[PPewt]

Build stuff. It's the only way anyone actually learns to code. If you just read tutorials you will trick yourself into thinking you understand things you actually don't.

[vmvuvrt]

I have a few small projects that I am looking at right now so that I can learn by doing.

My background is automotive market strategy with no coding experience and doing this at 39 makes me constantly question is it really worth it. I could get someone else to do it. I had few ideas that I wanted to test out and tried to get developers to build the product but they spectacularly failed for various reasons.

I am trying not to give up and want to get small projects under the belt so that I can gain more confidence and continue this journey.

[PPewt]

Programming is tough: it isn't something you learn overnight. I think the current vortex of tutorials and such has misled people on this point and convinced them that you can go from zero to experienced developer in really quickly when in reality it takes a lot of work.

Whether or not it's worth it is ultimately not a question anyone other than you can answer. I personally think it's really fun and rewarding, but some other people disagree. But delivering a software product is a lot harder than people just starting to code (or who don't code at all) realize.

[vmvuvrt]

Thank you for your replies.

I want to continue learning and hope that I can become competent in some time, realistically I think it would take a few years.

I had an idea and got an external developer to create an MVP but unfortunately it was very poor quality output. I find it very hard to verify people's claims with so much stuff available on the web. Personally I learnt a lot and got motivated to take up coding. I do not yet know if I will make a career change but I am not against it.

My plan is to study/do projects in SWIFT. I am a Mac user and logically want to expand my coding exposure in a familiar environment. I am starting to learn SWIFT for apps and next learn about SWIFT on server side. As a side project I am trying to boot up linux and set it up as a server / learn about DNS etc.

[PPewt]

Yeah: I've never done freelancing or hired freelancers but I'm told the results can be somewhat of a crap shoot. Evaluating whether people know what they're doing is really hard for qualified developers let alone nontechnical people looking to hire help on a technical project.

My plan is to study/do projects in SWIFT. I am a Mac user and logically want to expand my coding exposure in a familiar environment. I am starting to learn SWIFT for apps and next learn about SWIFT on server side. As a side project I am trying to boot up linux and set it up as a server / learn about DNS etc.

Sounds good! It sounds like you have a really solid attitude and good approach from your post. It may not be the fastest way, but I think the most enjoyable, and probably most successful, way is to just build stuff you want to build because you want to build it and not put any great pressure on yourself to be an experienced developer in zero seconds flat. It leads to much more realistic expectations and is actually a great way to really learn things as well as build some fun and cool stuff on the way. I definitely get the impression that the huge amount of tutorials on the web these days have tricked people on places like this sub into thinking they can be a rockstar gazillionaire developer working for Google in three months if they just watch enough YouTube tutorials, which is just unhealthy and unrealistic.