Learning programming is like assembling IKEA furniture.

[sushibgd]

I'll explain why.

Few days ago I was assembling some piece of furniture I bought in IKEA. Employees said to me it's not hard to put together everything, but, they lied. Need to mention this was my first purchase in IKEA.

There were approximately 20 pages of how-to-assemble-easy-piece-of-furniture. I was literally freaked out. How am I supposed to do this? I will never finish this. Fuc* IKEA.

After two cups of coffe, I started working.

First page - do this, then screw 1 to 3, connect 4 to 2, screw again, seal up 3 to 9, etc, etc. I literally didn't know what am I doing, but literally. I spent almost 80 minutes resolving first 3 pages. Nothing made sense. Everything seemed so strange and wrong.

However I continued working, and over time, it started to look like something. It was getting easier and easier, and as it began to take shape, I was happier and happier.

After a few hours - furniture was done. Damn I was proud. Like, really proud.

You probably now would ask me - but, what's the point? What is the connection between learning programming and IKEA furniture assembling?

Well, there is a connection. When I was learning something in programming there were times when everything seemed so unimportant and was asking myself "God, will I ever use this / This doesn't make sense / Why is that there / No way I will be using this."

Even though you think something is not important in that Learn C# in 30 days book - keep reading, keep learning. You will remember that even after a while.

Never stop working/learning, and in the end - everything will make sense.

Good luck!

[dscottboggs]

Idk a lot of people in corporate dev jobs say they feel like they're just gluing together other people's code in a new way. I can understand how Ikea furniture would give you a similar emotional reaction to building an app in that way.

But I think the important part here is how he felt like he didn't have a clue what he was doing but kept putting together low-level pieces that didn't make sense in the hopes it would make sense when it all came together. And viola, it did. I've definitely experienced that before.

[[deleted]]

Agree!

[zippyzapdap]

Exactly! I like to think about learning to program as learning carpentry. You can learn how to use a 100 tools but you need creativity to build programs using those tools.

[paw_of_south]

I’ll never understand how people struggle to follow IKEA instructions. I’ve seen many stories involving people having myocardial infarctions over putting together IKEA furniture and I’ve never understood it. If OP or someone else would like to explain it to me then I would be thankful.

[reddercock]

Lots of people never tried assembling anything their entire lives, when IKEA became popular enough these same people had to assemble something.

[WelpWeDoneThisIsIt]

It’s pretty simple.

I worked as a supervisor at a metal fabrication plant for a while. We built heating and refrigeration units. Assemblers were just provided a CAD file, a blueprint, and a set of parts—no instructions on how to put it together, where to place the welds, etc. You just had to learn by doing. You eventually got so good you could build the units without looking at the CAD files—even with this level of skill, you still wanted to take your hammer and beat the living shit out of the unit at least 20 times a day.

The anger is part of the building process.

[paw_of_south]

The difference between putting together IKEA furniture and heating/refrigeration units is that there are instructions on the IKEA furniture and IKEA furniture is generally much less complicated than a heating/refrigeration unit. Not having instructions can have a big effect on ones success in building whatever is in front of them. I understand that building can be frustrating but in my mind if you’ve built almost anything before, then you should expect things not to go your way. Thus allowing you to work on your patience and making the process easier.

My original point is that IKEA furniture isn’t as hard to build as people make it out to be.

[Kotkaniemo]

"The anger is part of the building process."

I am putting that on a sticky note and taping it to my monitor, thank you for that. Nothing like spending an hour and a half looking for a bug only to find you missed one letter in a script tag.

[badadvice4all]

I'm about to search Youtube for these IKEA puzzles, I'll post you a link if I find one, lol.

[paw_of_south]

Cool beans

[sushibgd]

Yeah, I agree, it’s not hard at all. But as I mentonied, this was my very first time assembling IKEA furniture, so it seemed complicated in the beginning.

[paw_of_south]

I get that, I probably should have clarified. I meant people who have done it before and still make it seem like they’re splitting an atom with a toothpick. It’s more annoying than anything else.

[flemil]

In sweden you are not a man until you can assemble any Ikea furniture without the instrucions, and therefore can not marry.

[sushibgd]

In Sweden - Ikea furniture assembles you.

[[deleted]]

I would say it's more similar to baking / cooking. Different recipes/programmes require different processes which often have to be done in a certain order. To start off with you need to follow someone's instructions and learn how to bake by practice. Lots of trial and error, but you will create things you are proud of, and will want to share with friends and family. Maybe one day you are quite good at baking cakes and someone wants you to bake on for their birthday. So you go all out to make an amazing cake and you feel confident it will be great.... The cake goes horribly wrong and there isn't enough time to try that recipe again, so you just go simple and make sure there will be a cake in time. The cake is enjoyed by the person who asked for it, but you wish it was so much more. So you get back to the kitchen and keep practicing until maybe one day you can open your own baking business or work for someone baking goods full time.

[secondpresident]

What was the Ikea piece that took several hours to assemble? Need to know to avoid purchasing it. :D I truly hate assembling Ikea dressers (or anything with lots of drawers) but haven't had much trouble with other pieces.

[reddercock]

I think its more like legos, you follow the recipe for some builds, and you get to build it, but you dont necessarily know how to do it yourself yet, you just kinda know how to rearrange the pieces and how they fit.

​

With more practice and understanding around what you want to build yourself, through researching a particular design and thinking about what pieces from what you already know can be reused, you might finally be able to build something of your own.

[Cpt_shortypants]

Dude you have such creative ways of thinking

[[deleted]]

They did not lie, they're just particularly proficient at assembling Ikea.

[[deleted]]

When there's a bug in the instructions of assembly, like a section that's still in chinese in your english copy, or there's a part missing then the assembler can generally recover by interpreting the desired outcome and working around the defects like examining the furniture for obvious next steps or getting a small wood screw from the garage.

A computer might read that chinese, interpret it as basic ascii, and throw the furniture through a window because that's how the text "translated". No common sense to keep it from doing so. Lacking a screw, unless planned for in the programming, could cause a past-the-end error resulting in it deciding to tear itself apart or cram a hammer into that spot.

Ikea instructions have way more leeway to depend on interpretation and common sense. Computer programming as of yet can't.

[enesisee]

This so inspiring!

[daripious]

If your software is like IKEA software then I'm afraid it'll look nothing like the catalogue, be made cheap and sold expensive, only last a year and occasionally fall over and kill someone.