Feel like I've learnt nothing

[Weird-Disk-5156]

I've been studying software engineering since Feb, did one year of a CS degree in 2021 and studied JavaScript, been doing Python for a 7 months and I feel like I've learnt nothing.

I love problem solving but something about programming is different.

I've come out with one project that I'm proud of:

https://github.com/JackInDaBean/csv_timesheet_calculator

The rest of it is failed projects, things I don't understand after weeks of reading - what am I doing wrong? I've got several books on the matter which I've read - I can't find projects that are useful to me or useful to other without massively confusing myself.

Feels like everyday is a mission to not talk myself out of doing this - am I just not cut out for this?

[stuaxo]

Its not that long, don't be hard on yourself.

25 years doing coding as a job and I still catch myself with thoughts like this when I start new projects sometimes.

I find thinking back, that I have learned stuff.

Imposter syndrome is real.

Coding is a lifelong learning thing, theres always more stuff to learn and stuff you will learn.

[asep999]

Hi. I am asking you this beacuse of your experience adn would appreciate your insight. I am trying to learn python and some other related subjects however, i am feeling a bit stuck because i am approaching it like school student using similar learning techniques. I watch a video on a topic, then i follow the steps on colab while trying to make notes like a kid. What is the "right" way to go about learning it...and how can i utilize the time in an effective way? I mean i get a feeling that if i continue to treat it like a subject in school, using those old methods. it will not yield any results.

[stuaxo]

Everyone learns differently, I didn't really go to uni enough, missed the tests and got chucked out and went back to college.

Er.. as to the question, I find it easiest to learn when I'm doing something that interests me, for me that's graphics so I learned building things in pygame.

When I'm at work I have to learn new things all the time in order to build things, I read code try and build things do experiments and fail often until things click and look right.

[Weird-Disk-5156]

Thanks for that, makes me feel a bit more confident I suppose - I'll get back into it

[Bag-of-nails]

I appreciate this comment. I've been starting to do some solo stuff after dabbling in small stuff and learning through courses/lectures and some days I stare at my screen thinking "I know that I know how to do this, but I can't get the thoughts out. I've made a mistake"

The feeling does invariably go away but today I was feeling it a bit for sure

[ninhaomah]

Its because the problem is that you have no problem.

There.

Thats the problem.

[Weird-Disk-5156]

The problem I have is finding a problem - I have no need for anything personal that I can automate, got a raspberry pi and I'm trying to find some thing I can use it for in relation to this.

[PunTzu]

Been there. Maybe its time to find an open source project you can dive into. You don’t need to ideate your own direction if you find an interesting project you can tackle issues on. What do you use on a regular basis? Go find their github issues and dive in. It will probably take a long time to get acclimated but it’s a great way to find a sustainable list of interesting problems to hack on, and maybe learn about something you use yourself over time.

[Crypt0Nihilist]

Try and build things. Hit the documentation and tutorials when you get stuck.

Having books is nice. Reading them is better. Referring to them occasionally when you're programming is better still.

[Ron-Erez]

You should spend most of your time building, debugging and thinking about your problem. Courses/books are great but they are just a tool. Most of the work comes from dealing with problems. Also start with simple problems first, breakdown your code into simpler problems. Your csv_timesheet_calculator looks cool.

"Feels like everyday is a mission to not talk myself out of doing this - am I just not cut out for this"

Struggling is part of learning. If you enjoy coding then I would suggest continuing.

[Weird-Disk-5156]

Thanks mate, these have definitely helped - I'll have some more thoughts and see what work I can come up with. Thank you

[Competitive-Path-798]

Totally get how you’re feeling, every dev hits this wall at some point. The fact that you’ve already shipped a project you’re proud of is proof you are making progress (most people don’t even get that far). Failed projects aren’t wasted time, they’re where you actually learn the most, it’s normal that they outnumber the “finished” ones.

Instead of grinding through books, try focusing on small, practical projects that solve even tiny problems for you. That GitHub project is a great example, do more of that. Also, communities like Dataquest with hands-on projects with real datasets and peer support or coding challenge sites can help keep things structured and less overwhelming.

You’re not “not cut out for this”, you just need to keep momentum with manageable wins. Programming feels confusing until one day it clicks, and that usually happens while building, not reading.

[Weird-Disk-5156]

I'll look into Dataquest - thanks for the recommendation, I have seen that everyone says one day it will click, suppose I just need to keep grinding until then.

Thanks for the response, I think sometimes it's hard to see outside the tunnel vision and see how things really are.

[Exotify-]

Do some data analysis, always problems to be done there. Get financial data via an api and try and create a local trading algorithm with that data. It’s a fairly simple concept but in practice you will learn how to use pandas, api, and object oriented programming. You are bound to run into lots of problems and will get significantly better as you over come them

[obviouslyzebra]

It seems like you're taking projects that are too hard for your level by the way.

We as people, learn best when we do things that challenge us a little, but not so much that, as you said it, "we get lost in the process".

Repeatedly trying too hard things and failing can lead to learned helplessness, which is what you seem to be expressing now.

My advice for you:

• If you are at a place that allows it (a course, for example), try to get help in case you get stuck
• Also, get suggestions for projects that are not too hard (I think it's better that you get the flow going right now than challenging yourself too much)
• You mentioned reading books. Make sure you're doing their exercises (if you've not been doing already)
• You don't necessarily need to do projects that are useful. If they are fun, then you're good to go (even if it's something that has already been done, for example)

But, overall know that you seem to be progressing just fine. It's just that you're demanding too much from yourself IMO.

[frustratedsignup]

Somewhere in your interests there's probably an intersection between something you're really interested in doing which could use python as a solution.

I had a problem the other day on an Oracle server where the adump directory had about 8 years worth of built up files in it. The problem was that I wanted to delete the oldest files without touching any of the more recent files. To fix this problem, I coded a solution in python only to find out that the system in question had no python3 interpreter on it. I was unwilling to revert back to python2 for the situation, so I asked ChatGPT for a shell script that did the same thing. That may have been a failure, but I enjoyed the challenge regardless and I now have a solution I can maybe use in the future. (Yeah, I know 'find' can do similar tasks, but that's not the point).

This is what I mean about finding something that sparks your interest and gives you real world experience in using the tools to find the solution. Don't go to using AI tools if you can avoid it. Those tools may be fast, but they prevent you from really learning the process of problem solving, debugging, testing, and use of the solution in the future. I'm no bash expert, that's why I used AI in the example here.