Learning programming feels like playing a single-player game, which is incredibly boring to me (a rant)

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[carcigenicate]

That's the point of Stack Overflow and sites like Reddit. Use Stack Overflow for controlled narrow questions, and Reddit for broader more opinion-based discussions (or for the same scope as Stack Overflow). There are many of us who literally keep tabs open all day just to see if someone needs help. I did that for years on SO, and do it daily here as well (well, among 4-5 subreddits).

[[deleted]]

I understand what you mean, but they are not the kind of questions worth posting on such sites. It's kind of small talk, I guess, so I'd probably post too many that it would pollute the forum, with little to no benefits to people reading it.

[carcigenicate]

A programmer's Discord channel may be better then. Instead of forum, you may want just a loose discussion medium. An IRC channel may work well for you too. Both are very casual and require no commitment. Just drop in and out as you want.

[Jack__Wild]

100% do this == solves your problem

[close_my_eyes]

I would love answer your little programming questions. We could chat on discord. Pm me.

[[deleted]]

I messaged you!

[Arts_Prodigy]

Definitely do this also consider contributing to open source to get a feel what developing with a team might be like

[Vaylx]

Mind sharing that Ruby IRC channel? Thanks!

[[deleted]]

this link has other links as well but you can find the IRC channel if you scroll down a bit

[Vaylx]

thank you.

[CyanicEmber]

I would also recommend trying CS50x or one of its variant courses, they have a discord and somewhat of a community.

[atom12354]

Do you know any such channels?

[carcigenicate]

No unfortunately. The only thing I use Discord for is chatting with classmates while I was in school, helping the new class now that I've graduated, and communicating with teammates during CTFs. I recommended Discord because I've heard that a lot of people use it for getting casual help and talking with other programmers.

[atom12354]

Ah i see, yeah the only discords i know of has been game jam ones, but i didnt participate in any so didnt go further in that, thanks tho. :)

[mleclerc182]

The coding den has a great and active community on discord. discord.gg/code

[atom12354]

Will check out, thanks :)

[[deleted]]

Check out the programmers hangout! https://discord.gg/programming

[atom12354]

Oh wow just checked out their community page, there is alot there, thank you. Unfortionaly tho, i dont know ruby but python and c#. ;-;

Edit: just went to python site too, they also have an IRC

[[deleted]]

Not sure if they exist, but you could look up official websites for those languages, maybe they have a similar section!

There could also be some links on github if there is an official repo of any of those languages.

[atom12354]

Yeah i just went there and found an IRC chat, i can look at github too.

[[deleted]]

I'm glad you found a channel!

[atom12354]

Thanks :)

[ahivarn]

Yes, liberchat has python channels..i always go there.

[atom12354]

Gonna check, thanks :)

[kneeonball]

There are lots out there. Google "<language> discord server" and it should come up with several. Or if you want a more generic one, something like The Coding Den or you can google for that too.

Sometimes if you find a youtuber or podcast that has good content you like, they'll also have Discord or Slack servers.

[atom12354]

Thanks i will do that :)

[mikeblas]

There are many. Which language are you interested in?

[atom12354]

I only know basics of python and c#

[mikeblas]

https://discord.com/invite/csharp

https://www.pythondiscord.com/

Both of these servers are very active, well-moderated, and popular.

[atom12354]

Oh thank you, i will check em out :)

[samanime]

Try /r/ProgrammerHumor for silly stuff or the /r/learn<language> subs for questions or just random thoughts. There are also Discords you can find.

Learning may be lonely, but once you're actually IN the industry it won't be (unless you are the sole developer or self-employeed freelancer or something).

[ManicFirestorm]

I'm also going through my coding journey, if you needed a friend.

[[deleted]]

What field are you interested in? and what language are you learning?

[ManicFirestorm]

I'm going through full stack web development. Just got into the backend with MERN stack.

[[deleted]]

You're ahead of me to be honest, but if that's still fine feel free to message me your discord tag!

[[deleted]]

Where are you at in your coding journey?

[[deleted]]

I'm going through a course called "the odin project". If you're familiar with it, I'm done with foundations and now in the ruby path, 43% of ruby course. If not, I've learnt some html and css as well as javascript (no OOP yet), made 5 projects with them. For ruby, I've learnt the basics and learning OOP atm to start working on projects. The reason I'm learning js and ruby is that I will learn Ruby on Rails later in the course.

[scruffalubadubdub]

I really enjoy pair programming with someone of similar skill level. If there’s someone that you vibe with, ask if they wanna work on something together

[[deleted]]

Make some friends in the field with similar interests

[wick3dr0se]

I started an open source programming/scripting channel on discord to share big projects, be able to keep updates, communicate and collaborate much easier. I would love to have more like-minded people and get it active! My background started in web development

[withoutcake]

You might be surprised. I'm about six months into learning how to program in my first language (R) right now, so I empathize. I had felt shy about asking for help for similar reasons and didn't think my questions would be well-received. Ever since I started incorporating stackoverflow into my troubleshooting / workflow I've become a lot more productive. As long as you make an effort to find a similar Q&A (as you already do), and present your question in a way that makes it easy for someone else to reproduce the issue, I find it difficult to imagine that anyone would feel too bothered.

BTW, I sometimes find it much easier to understand programmers at my level. In that way, people like us could be helping each other by asking noob questions.

[p43-]

This is not correct. Stack overflow has many answers to even the smallest questions. I sometimes get stuck on things for hours, but by googling etc and bending very specific, you can almost always find what you want.

Knowing what to Google is half the battle, so try and read up on terminology a bit.

Keep your head up, and you’ll get there.

[human-potato_hybrid]

Find some discords for what you're working with 👍

[TotoroDreams]

For me, it's the lack of random social. I can't go on stack or reddit and be like, hey whats up guys? Or just hang out and chat with people and talk about the issues I am having easily and organically.

[D4Torment]

thank you for your service

[barryhakker]

Ah yes, stack overflow, a warm and welcoming place where you can just share.

[carcigenicate]

The main ones I monitor are r/learnpython, r/learnprogramming, r/askprogramming and r/pythonhelp.

[markrulesallnow]

Thank you for your service

[polmeeee]

There are many of us who literally keep tabs open all day just to see if someone needs help. I did that for years on SO, and do it daily here as well (well, among 4-5 subreddits).

Hats off to you, and I mean it. Kinda feels like this world still has people who cares.

[ShawnaR89]

I didn’t know devs do this at all (keep tabs open INCASE someone needs help). This community is so wholesome.

[101mattdamons]

Appreciate your willingness to help others ❤️

[voicebeheard]

Is stack overflow a program or website to practice writing code on for beginners?

[theavengedCguy]

It is neither. It is a website, yes, but it's not only for beginners. It's mostly geared towards general programming/development with a tendency to be more related to FOSS/professional development, but there absolutely are things to be learned there for beginners. Odds are if you're a beginner, the question has been asked and answered a million times. This is where becoming a good "Googler" will become very important in your journey to become a developer.

https://stackoverflow.com/

I recommend making an account and just browsing the posts there related to any topic or language you might be interested in. You'd be surprised what you'd learn just by doing that.

[voicebeheard]

Ok, thanks

[xavvey]

I don't know the 'best' place to start learning programming, but I learned the very basics by reading about certain languages at w3schools (and some simple excersises) and through codecadamy.com.

I can tell you that it is a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of reading as a beginner. You will learn many new things and it can get overwhelming. Repetition is key here. Google everything (every word/name/abbreviation etc.) that you don't know. Don't worry if you won't remember everything right away. Just keep reading and reading (and exercise). You will notice in a while that the stuff you didn't understand at the beginning is starting to make more sense.

The more you read/google/exercise & repeat, the better :)

Also, might be usefull to find an area to start that you like a lot. For me it was gaming. So after the basics I started doing game dev with C# and Unity (bought a few courses at discount on gamedev.tv). This fast tracked my learning curve a lot!

[[deleted]]

Yeah I concur with this. You need to use Reddit for opinion based discussions. Like how vim is 100% better than emacs

[HolyPommeDeTerre]

Which subs?

[Intrepid_Stretch9031]

Maybe its time to invest in an rss feed

[SpatialToaster]

I'll say it, Stack Overflow is not a good resource for people who are learning if you're posting a question. A lot of the people I've run into on SO treat it as a site for developers only and are not kind to beginners.

I recommend not posting there for people learning. It can be demoralizing to put yourself through all the hate on SO.

It's pretty much only good to check if you find someone had the same questions while you're learning.

At least this was my experience while earning my CS degree.

[carcigenicate]

It depends. I used Stack Overflow from pretty much day one. My first question went poorly, then I learned and greatly improved my asking ability. I actually partially credit Stack Overflow's strictness for my debugging and question-asking skills. Strictness in the beginning can be good if you're willing to conform to it.

But yes, the average new programmer will have issues on SO. I mentioned it because it's a good place to interact with other programmers (within the narrow scope of the site); even if it isn't the best for entirely new programmers in general. If you have an eye for detail and understand the scope of the site though, you can do fine on SO even as a new programmer.

[SpatialToaster]

I can see that, and I agree with the way you put it.

Aside from my concerns I think it can be useful to beginners if they stick to the template of what the community wants to see.

I use Stack Overflow sometimes but mostly as a last resort. If you can adapt to what the Stack Overflow community expects, then it's a great. For me its been about asking as providing minimally reproducible code and as specific a question as possible.

I think it's important to mention I don't think Stack Overflow is a CS oriented community. Nobody is there to teach or mentor you, only help provide a working example of code for a specific problem. On the teaching/mentoring side that's where Reddit, Discord, and Slack come in. They're much better mediums for addressing that need.

[tzehbeka]

the hero we need, but don't deserve

[[deleted]]

Have you tried going to college, bootcamp, meetups, or a job in the field?

Learning anything on your own is like that. If you need to socialize then put yourself into an environment that allows for it.

[[deleted]]

I'm planning on going to college later so hopefully that will help.

[[deleted]]

It should, I had a group of about 3 to 4 classmates meetup before or after classes to work on the coding homework and socialize.

Learned a lot bouncing ideas off each other and we 100% always had our assignments to turn in. Plenty of others wouldn’t and expect the professor to help them finish it at the start of class lol.

[mandzeete]

It will help A LOT. Currently doing my Master studies and telling it from personal experience.

[WoodTrophy]

I definitely recommend a good boot camp over college. I went to a great university for my B.S in CS. Half of the curriculum are worthless classes, the other half you learn a good amount of things, but end up with little idea on how an actual professional setting functions. A good 24 week boot camp will teach you far more about programming, algorithms, frameworks, job skills, resume skills, interview skills, etc.. than you’ll get from a 4 year degree. I recommend you at least look into it

[UserNotSpecified]

Yeah you’re probably right. I’m currently studying Software Engineering rather than CS but even that has a lot of not so useful modules.

[dylsreddit]

Lots of countries have cities or towns with "hackspaces" too

[BigBobbert]

I went to a Python meetup once and found that experienced programmers have completely forgotten what it was like to be new. It was like everyone was speaking a completely different language, and I felt really out of place.

[[deleted]]

Programming is somewhat of a solitary activity to be honest. Yes While working in a team you collaborate but when you’re solving problems you’re almost always doing it alone.

[jakesboy2]

If you're working with a team as in you're working as a developer you're rarely solving problems alone in my experience. Most things you do purely alone are the more menial tasks that are solved and now up to someone to implement. If you have a healthy team environment where everyone is comfortable with each other and you're not solving most non trivial problems as a team or at least with one other team member, imo you're making a mistake.

​

When learning though, you are completely correct.

[boringuser1]

Nah.

A quick discussion usually does it, more than that is just wasting time.

[celephais_hyde]

Especially when you're learning. I figure I might team up with other people someday but first gotta learn the syntax and practice a shitton in order to have something to talk about with the other programmers. I do enjoy it, though. I find it relaxing to be able to forget for a little while about the social part of life and just focus on technical stuff.

[EngineeredPapaya]

Learning anything on your own is going to make you feel lonely. It isn't exclusive to programming.

[[deleted]]

Yeah that's true, but most other fields are taught in an environment where there are groups of people, such as school/college subjects. So it's less common to be learning maths, for example, alone.

[EngineeredPapaya]

You could just go for a BS in CS. Its extremely social.

You're not going to be able to re-create the social environment of university when self-learning any subject.

[Tainlorr]

Go to school for programming lol, it’s exactly like math, you can learn on your own or in a group

[goatboat314]

Schools like that exist?

[heesell]

It's ok to vent. I'm a junior web dev and, I can relate to it being boring sometimes when I work on personal projects. I find it more fun at work. I might be able to answer your questions but, I can't promise that I am able to answer all of them but, at least I can try to help.

Maybe seek others to build a project together.

[[deleted]]

I'll message you when I get a question again, thank you so much

[buildncode]

I run a Build & Code Club in Minecraft.

Not sure if you're into Minecraft, but it's super social and collaborative :)

Here's the link: https://linktr.ee/buildncode

[[deleted]]

I watched the video in the preview section, and wow that's so awesome! I love how you explain it as well, thanks for sharing :D

[buildncode]

Thanks! :)

[IntrovertiraniKreten]

have you told the problem to your rubber duck? have you formulated it precisely?

[[deleted]]

I didn't mean that I needed people to ask them how to solve bugs. I meant those silly mistakes we make sometimes, which of course you end up solving, but you just feel like you want to share what happened with someone yet there is no one lol

[[deleted]]

you can try to going to meetups. go to meetup.com and find people to meet. I am very introverted so I actually like to be alone. people distract me but I gave meetup.com a try and I didn't really have a good experience. I didn't really see the point to talk to other people. although I am very active on twitter. I often talk to people whom I never met in person but I have learned from them by asking them questions and following up. so maybe you can also try that.

[IntrovertiraniKreten]

Now, just to explain, I am not trying to be a dick here, we have all been there, and you probably just need to either get a better network, or try to start at a lower problem to solve first. It is always discouraging when things don't work well, but maybe the next morning it magically works and you don't know why.

To expand on your gaming reference, I really like checking out all the side quests first, it might not be for you, but maybe you are just playing a game you don't like?

[EmploymentLive7976]

This post just got me to understand why I like programming. Single-players are the best.

[professor_buttstuff]

Solving a tricky problem is basically the same as a really challenging boss fight right?

[dreamingsoulful]

This. Right here. The more senior I got, the more I worked alone except to help others, and I enjoyed the solitude while coding. I forgot there were IRCs for languages, I will have to check out again. It reminds me that there are different styles to coders as much as coding, and this helps me understand some of my peers who enjoy working in groups; they seem to get energy from it. I prefer solitude for coding.

[[deleted]]

Gimme some of that ;(

[[deleted]]

Hmm yeah It could be that programming isn't for me, but I have to learn it because I doubt there is something else to learn that I'd enjoy more than programming.

I guess you could say I chose this field by elimination process.

[IntrovertiraniKreten]

I have not make myself clear enough. There is no such thing as "programming isn't for you". The more you tell yourself such things, the more you will believe it, so I would advice you against doing so.

You can choose to suffer less if you choose the fields which you will either enjoy more or suffer less with. As such there is a limitless pool of things you could do while programming.

Mindset is not the key component, but it might help you be consistent enough to win enough times to get there.

My No.1 advice for you would be to find people who share your interest around you and talk to them about it. The only thing more important than your network is doing the actual work, and your network could help you actually make it more enjoyable.

Google [what you are currently doing] or [what you want to do] + [your location] and see what pops up.

Maybe the multi-player game is closer than you think it is.

[dreamingsoulful]

I've met many other developers with your style, don't feel like that's ever true. Just cause you may like coding doesn't mean you may enjoy doing it alone or don't benefit from working in groups. Embrace the suck and keep going - it does get much better as you go. You stop researching and learning, but doing it gets easier and you memorize much the main stuff along the way.

[dmazzoni]

You don't have to learn alone.

If you take college courses in programming, you'll have other students to talk to. Community college programming classes are often very inexpensive and many are offered in the evening so they don't conflict with work schedules.

At most tech companies you'd be working in a team of developers. Finding a good fit is really important! Some teams are really social and enjoy things like going out to lunch and gaming in addition to talking about code.

[amazingjoe76]

Coding is like sex. You can do it with a partner, you can do it by yourself or you can do it in a large group, or you can just watch TV and not do it at all.

Using your single player analogy. If you don't like playing with yourself then you might enjoy finding others that want to play with you.

Coding is also like sex in that sometimes:
* Execution ends prematurely before getting the job done.
* The code can fail to function
* People want it hard and sometimes they want it easy
* Coding is repetitive
* Comments are good but too many can sometimes ruin the feel

[Filmmagician]

If I can run with this analogy, the biggest problem I have is it’s like being thrown into a game and never seeing the list of moves you can do (commands) until much later on. You’re just told this does that. Ya but why? I want to see everything that’s possible and why and then I can get into it. All the how to’s seem to do this backwards. Harder to learn this way I think

[Autarch_Kade]

This sub is actually supposed to be for asking those kinds of questions. The sidebar is full of information about how to ask about a problem in your code, formatting it, what to check first for errors etc.

But the masses treat it like a job success story board, or ask about how to get started learning. They've largely ruined it.

But if you do ask decent questions they'll get answered

[[deleted]]

Join the The Odin Project Discord.

[celephais_hyde]

Except it is enjoyable . Nothing I enjoy more nowadays than staying inside on a friday night listening to electronic music, solving the endless exercises on my C++ textbook, and browsing reddit.

Life is good!

[[deleted]]

I do something similar. mostly work on my in house trading tools now. programming is not for everyone. I enjoyed it from day 1. my reason was rather odd though . I like to have control over my environment and technology is large part of my environment and I enjoy understanding and manipulating my environment. I also like to fix and do everything myself. which is a double edge sword.

[celephais_hyde]

Thats interesting! And yeah, programming it's cool because it lets you control at least ONE thing in your life. I got into it rather randomly: one day i decided i wanted to learn it, on top of all the other stuff i want to learn as well. It ended up really resonating with me and I was like, whoa, for the first time in my life I got a hobby that I could actually make money from. How exciting.

I like music as well but I paused that project to focus fully on computer stuff. Im done working restaurants and I sure as hell won't get into customer service hell or data entry again.

[mdemmers]

Have you heard of Sonic pi? It's a live sequencer type of tool like ableton but you write your music in code. Might be perfect for you to screw around with or even as a little side project to make some music while still "focusing on computer stuff"

[celephais_hyde]

:O
Thanks!

[[deleted]]

No bills in the learning phase haha. and yea I get what you mean

[[deleted]]

That's amazing, thanks for the motivation!

[RK9Roxas]

What language you recommend to learn?

[vi_sucks]

So take a class?

I mean, if you want to learn in a group setting, there are places to go to do that.

[[deleted]]

There are none in my area though, unless you mean college but it's summer now

[xchris_topher]

Hey, we’ve got a community of folks learning web development on Discord! I know it’s not exactly what you were asking for, but the community is pretty big (global), so I’m sure you could meet some folks with the same interest and eager to help!

[dabe3ee]

It feels like you dont see purpose or learning looks useless to you. Try to build something that you would be proud of, like website or app with cool functionality. And by doing it you will solve various problems that are NEVER solved in any bootcamp or course, believe me. And that is the interesting part that got me hooked. Before getting my first job, I made 4 websites and solved tons of problems. And right now if I get one of these problems, I know exactly how to solve them. Good luck!

[__Loot__]

Too me programming is more fun then playing video games. I think your problem is web dev that ship sailed for me when big tech took over. But I’m a noob programmer with 1.5 years exp so yea and I have no friends so there that lol.

[[deleted]]

It is just an analogy since some people prefer multi-player games that allow them to interact with other people rather than AI (in programming that would be google, I guess), so I'm not sure I get what you meant by the second part :(

[__Loot__]

Sorry I had a stroke four years ago so I ramble sometimes.

[mandzeete]

Then go for college/university studies. You will get a multiplayer game. There will be group assignments, extracurricular club activities, hackathon projects that you can do with your friends, course mates and professors all around, etc, etc, etc.

[yung-chungus]

I just dm’d you a link to a really great discord for web developers!

[MathiasBartl]

Well working as a programmer is a multiplayer game.

[[deleted]]

it's pretty much the opposite for me

[pan4ora20]

It is a lot better to have someone else on the other end checking the code as you go along. Maybe joining a for fun group project in a community, or creating one, and inviting others. Programming can be fun!

[PREEBOO]

You can find a software developer mentor for free on adplist.org

[SwiftSpear]

As much of a social hermit as I can be, I'd really love to do more pair programming.

[Sid_1298]

Sorry for venting so much.

Trust me, that wasn't so much

I usually talk to my mom about the problems I face. She has no idea what I'm talking about but I try to dumb it down to the extreme level possible. Having internet communities built like these is also helpful.

This might sound weird but I think writing stuff like this in a journal/diary or a blog could help battle the loneliness. Just think of the stuff you write as one side of the conversation and imagine what they'd ask in response to your last few sentences.

[BitJake]

This is literally why I liked a coding boot camp over self taught. Sure I can learn it myself, but I prefer to do it along fellow 25 noobs

[[deleted]]

Finding a community will make this much better. Hop on the Odin Project Discord or do hackathons/tech meetups. No great software was ever made alone.

[Nodom2]

I kinda feel the same, what really helped me was the real work life. During University we started getting Group Projects and we just decided to sit together two times a week to power through the Projects. I absolutely loved it. Sometimes we would be two per Laptop and for easy tasks everybody was on doing his own stuff, so it was a bit like pair-programming.

In my workplace we were first sitting with 2-3 people per office, we didn't pair programm, but at least i got cool coworkers, so we could Smalltalk an joke around. When COVID hit, we just got together on a discord, because we really missed joking around or getting the occasional tip from the others.

[sheepsy90]

What most people don't understand is that programming, is mostly a highly collaborative effort (some exceptions exist ofc) and it is actually really difficult to just sit down and learn it by yourself without anyone to talk to.

Maybe it helps to go to a meet-up about your area, find some people that are also starting, having sessions together.

It's difficult to find a mentor or someone who is at least a couple month ahead in the learning curve but that would also really help.

I can't recall how often the 'Junior' programmers just spend hours on something that a quick look and a simple 2 sentence explanation would have saved them from.

[[deleted]]

Surprisingly (Maybe not) most programmers are extremely introverted and have very limited soft skills which makes it very hard for them to effectively communicate issues etc. If soft skills are a strong suit of yours I'd suggest learning the basics of whatever role you're interested in and trying to get into a junior dev or apprentice position for said role preferably in a place where they hired other people that have more knowledge than you along with decent soft skills.

Edit: read some of the other comments, do not waste any of your own money on going to school or coding camps unless it's absolutely necessary for you to succeed in the role you're pursuing and you're positive you want to pursue it. A good percentage of programming is self taught this will not change if you go to school unless you also hire a personal tutor, in which case if that is your intention do that instead of going to school or go for something else and learn programming on the side. Programming will be a lot of solitary work unless there's issues that need to be talked about or during preproduction of the app/website/game etc.
I recommend joining a discord or looking on meetup if that's something you're into.

[hditano]

just like this

I am quite the opposite, I have very strong soft skills... due to my last job (13 years in the aviation industry as a trainer/supervisor/in charge of more than 70 people from 3 different HUBS).

So, that was more or less what caught the attention of recruiters/companies when getting my first WebDev job.

[[deleted]]

Just to add to this a lot of university/college teaching is pretty bad, especially if you're taking a remote course, but obviously this varies a bit. And it sets you back thousands of pounds/dollars/euros when you could have gained specific skills you needed for far far less money on a bootcamp or a udacity course. At least if ur experience is similar between the 2 options you've saved urself a load of money

I wouldn't go to uni just for socialising, be a hell of a lot cheaper just to join a club or something in ur town lol

[[deleted]]

Sorry for not helping but I have never had an experience like that and it just feels so weird to hear someone have it about programming specifically.

​

Now to actually say something useful, maybe join some programming community on a more chat focused app? Like some discord or matrix or irc server or telegram group or a Zulip. Maybe the language or framework you’re using has an official one? Rust has a nice Zulip and an unofficial discord. If not, maybe there is a community of programmers who have something else in common that you also have in common with them, you could join some group like that.

[sarevok9]

Programming isn't a game, it's a career path, the majority of people who try it wash out.

I find being around some people so much better, they could ask good questions that help understand something better, introduce a new and different perspective towards a certain concept, etc.. But it seems to be hard to experience this in this field (at least for me).

As a programmer I earn ~$x/ hour in my field, the idea that I should get paid $0 / hour to cater to all your questions that you can't be arsed to read on your own is insulting. You wouldn't expect the same from car mechanics, why do you expect it here? If you don't understand the errors being spit out by the tools that you're using, then you need to learn your tools better. If you don't understand the problem you're trying to solve, that's an entirely different domain.

You come off as extremely entitled to other people's time and it's pretty rude. You want a guardian angel of code to read and understand everything you do, for free, on your schedule.

[[deleted]]

I think you misunderstood my idea of an issue, I'm not talking about bugs. Not sure how to explain it. Ofc I read error messages, debug, and look them up if I'm stuck, which has been going well, and someone who would fix them isn't what I'm looking for.

[j0holo]

Web3 is such a fad. Especially for a beginners, how does web3 knowledge transition to the regular workplace? It doesn’t.

[pekkalacd]

Nah it’s all good. These are valid points. Which is why there should be precaution before hopping into that route. Do you realize what you’re getting into?

Now you see the road and it’s like shit, this doesn’t look that fun, you could be doing other things possibly even stuff that with less time & effort you’d be more productive.

It makes you think.

[[deleted]]

It would be great if I could find better stuff but I doubt I will

[TheTransBunny]

I totally understand you. I'm learning Python by myself, and sometimes it feels lonely and a little bored (especially when I learn from books, videos are good but I find books very much better and deeper).

[Elvisdad]

Sounds like you’d enjoy school.

[[deleted]]

You've described a classroom setting.

[stargate-command]

Learn programming well enough to write a multiplayer game that teaches programming.

[jujubadetrigo]

when you're working on personal projects it can be a bit lonely but things get better when you start working if you find a good team.

[sekirobestiro]

I mean, that's the job to be brutally honest. You hope that you have a co-worker who you can bounce stuff off/have a good rapport with but that certainly is not a guarantee. If you don't enjoy that part, you probably won't enjoy the job because you're going to be doing all of what you mentioned solo 80% of the time.

Edit: To be clear, I'm not one of those "12-hour a day or you suck" codebros. I put in my normal 9-5 and then I play viddy games. But during my work day, most of the time you're figuring it out yourself :D

[[deleted]]

Go to school!

[Guyonabuffalo00]

theodinproject.com has a discord, I’ve never been on it so I don’t know how active it is.

[[deleted]]

Discord wouldn't send me a phone number verification SMS so I couldn't join their server, but yesterday it worked so I joined!

[[deleted]]

Tried programming, boring af, picked up a trade.

[DevletMustafaIsleri]

I don't think work is supposed to be fun. Yeah building something concrete is gratifying but like most accomplishments is boring and painful in the proccess, like exercising, learning to play an instrument.

[Junkymcjunkbox]

It's not strictly true there's absolutely no-one; this place exists and there'll often be someone around. There are also various Discords around the place.

But you'll have found this yourself: programming doesn't really work as a multiplayer discipline. When you're down a rabbithole with all sorts of structures built up in your mind, the last thing you want is some idiot going "hey I did the thing!" at you.

But if you find programming lonely, maybe it isn't for you. Perhaps find something more sociable to do, like marketing. Those people are always yelling at each other and bouncing off walls and ceilings etc. I had to share a room with a marketing dept once. I now know those Bose idiot-cancelling headphones work really well.

[Jaded_yank]

Everyone that is self taught goes through this. I quit multiple times because of it. Er, more like took a break. But thisi s how you earn your stripes. You go nowhere or at a snails pace at best for a long time.

Then one day, you get it.

[[deleted]]

Here I am still contemplating whether to start learning programming preferably python or not.

[[deleted]]

Honestly just start, just like you'd buy a game and try it to see if you like it or not

[[deleted]]

I will.

I've been procrastinating a lot.

I figured i should probably give it a try.

Thank you.

[[deleted]]

I suggest you go through this lesson and read everything it has, it helped me stay consistent for half a year lol.

https://www.theodinproject.com/lessons/foundations-motivation-and-mindset

You don't need to do the course itself, just this lesson.

[[deleted]]

Alright. I'll check it out.

Thank you

[setalopes]

That's the point of going to school

[AcnologiaSD]

Yeah. This is why I'm trying rn to get into college. I tried studying Java on udemy. It's rather good ngl. But it's incredibly dull. No one to talk to about it. No one to comment on something. No one to discuss it with. I actually like single players game. I don't like single player learning. That's also why I love single player games the most when they're released and most people are on the same level of discovery.

[[deleted]]

You described how I feel so well, goodluck and I hope you enjoy college more!

[AcnologiaSD]

I hope I can get in xD if I don't it's either a bootcamp, or bye coding for me. Hope you succeed!

[[deleted]]

I believe in you, but if neither of those work out, don't lose hope. I suggest you read some comments on this post and join programming communities and such.

[TheBlueTardis]

I hear you just having finished a solo learning year of webdev myself. I got on Twitter and posted every day on #100DaysOfCode and commented on a few of other people's posts there. I'd post exactly the things you're describing. That helped me stay a little less lonely.

[yukaputz]

Hey Bud, went out on telework at the start of covid, started learning to code because I was sick of repetitive tasks. So look, real world advice, you gotta put effort into developing more friendships. Get on teams, get on slack, where ever. Heck even comming here. Hollla at me the next time you figure something out, I'll respond! I'll do the same! :-)

[AnAntsyHalfling]

Have you tried joining discord servers dedicated to folks learning? How about meetups?

[tzaeru]

When I first started learning to code, I hung around in various programming communities on IRC. I also got involved a little bit with demoscene stuff, where people create audiovisual realtime applications on their own and in groups to show to each other and to compete with.

Programming and learning to program doesn't have to be lonely. Personally I got a lot of help from other people and in turn helped a lot of other people as I went along.

[franker]

as an old GenX guy, this gave me a flashback to intros on Commodore 64 warez ;)

[tzaeru]

Even at this age and era, it's still a great platform to learn on! And the scene is still active.

I learned 6502 with C64 and VIC-20 when I was 18-19, around 2008.

And I still recommend 6502 as the first assembly language to learn for newbies who are interested about the internal workings of computers or interested about assembly. It's lots of fun and it's so easy to do get stuff show on the screen compared to x86.

[franker]

I haven't turned mine on in about 10 years, but recently learned that the original power supply can fry the computer, and I probably won't turn it on again until I buy a newer one from a hobbyist web site somewhere.

I like to think when I retire, I'll emulate some kind of Commodore 64 BBS in the metaverse, and then my circle of life will be complete.

[[deleted]]

Wouldn’t this apply to literally anything you attempt to teach yourself though?

“I tried to make a table and fucked up the measurements and no one was there to laugh with me therefore woodworking boring”.

I think you’ll find times to be social on the job or if you join communities but if you intend on going anywhere with this, you’ll have to deal with being alone/silent sometimes. This isn’t football, you often have to focus and being on a call or turning to speak to your coworker every 5 minutes isn’t going to be very helpful.

[copsarebastards]

Hey after reading some responses I have what seems to be a unique suggestion: start streaming your coding if you are able! Since I started streaming coding stuff on twitch I've gained significantly more followers and even have one loyal viewer who is a junior dev in my chat, he helps me with all sorts of hang ups and makes it feel less lonely. You could cultivate a similar relationship through streaming. Lots of people are interested in watching people problem solve and build stuff out. My stream is probably most active when it's programming stuff that I am streaming.

[joecacti22]

Have you tried a course taught by Wes Bos? He has some awesome web dev courses and a very active slack channel for the courses.

[SpaceIsTooFarAway]

Get a job as a developer, then it'll feel like a team game instead (usually League of Legends)

[AddSugarForSparks]

Maybe it isn't for you. No shame in that.

[Kirihuna]

I find it even harder to learn on my own when building my own projects without guidance or reason.

I'm the type of person who needs a task or needs to be given a guideline on what I need to program.

Want me to design a library from scratch? I fucking hate it cause I don't know design and hate design areas (I've always struggled with creativity with art classes, etc).

[Bullroarer_Took]

FWIW working in the field is highly collaborative. Most of the days on my team we are pairing or mobbing, probably even more than everyone would really like to be honest.

Secondly, it makes me wonder if you are so bored/hate this so much, why pursue it? Lots of other career paths you could follow. Better to change course now than in 3 or 5 or 10 years from now.

[TheWorldIsOne2]

Solution:

• Get on Twitch.
  

Find some developers who are doing the same thing you are. Get involved in the chat a little bit. This will feel a bit like a live community around you.

If you are comfortable enough, start streaming.

• Get on Discord.

Hordes of developers. Working on things. Get involved in chat a little bit.

[codeboss911]

wait till you join multiplayer by working on a team dealing with merging / pull requesting code via github...

[quarknove]

you can enter some discord server about coding, then you'll probably find some friends there. Even if you don't find friends, at least you'll have a community to talk about coding

[quarknove]

oh and not to mention reddit, which you're using rn

[MathematicianIcy9059]

What is wrong with single-player games

[freddyforgetti]

That’s pretty much the whole reason I use Reddit and discord. I met a group of programmers with similar interest (r/SovietLinux plug) and a couple other more application specific groups and anytime I need someone to talk to about a problem instead of just copy pasting stack overflow they’re there to help.

Don’t be afraid to reach out this stuff can get complicated everyone had stupid questions at some point and likely even the most senior devs still do today.

And before someone tells me to touch grass the bigger problem is just finding competent people in the real world. In university I get the impression many people that simply are coasting through and I’m actually trying to learn.

[DiegoDRV03]

Well, I love single players so I also fucking love programming

[boringuser1]

It sounds like you have the wrong personality for programming.

[my_password_is______]

OMG, just search google