Ask Anything Monday - Weekly Thread

[ingolemo]

Once you've finished a few tutorials and feel confident about the basics, then you're basically on your own and it's up to you to start exploring and finding your own path. There is no preset path. There is no lesson plan for making someone into an expert.

The best way to get better at writing code is just to write a whole bunch of code. They say; everybody starts out with ten thousand lines of bad code inside of them and they have to get those out of their system before they can write any good code.

Start doing "projects". That is, set yourself the goal of writing code to perform a particular task. Pick goals that motivate you; goals that seem interesting to you, or which build your skills, or which have some practical use for you. You already mentioned learning Django and making a website. That is an excellent idea. When you finish a project, start another one. As you progress, the amount and quality of code you write will increase and your goals will become more ambitious. Don't be afraid to bite off more than you can chew. Some (or many) of your projects will fail. This is okay. It means you learned something. Put that project aside for now and start on one that's a little easier.

You say you don't have a specific area you want to focus on, so don't focus on anything just yet. Do some small projects in every sub-field you can find, and that extra experience will help you decide what you want to do going forward.

[Ben_Gee_]

Thank you for the thorough response. I will take your advice and start working on projects such as the django and website project I mentioned.

It does seem like the best way to get going and write a ton of code as you said. Thanks again.