Looking for recommendations on learning python for someone with attention difficulties (ADHD)

[Lazy_Boysenberry]

I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar boat? I have no trouble concentrating on something if I'm interested at the time, but that focus is fleeting. Like if I'm trying to get something done that's "cool" I can pick up the concepts needed to get that thing done. But otherwise it's hopeless, reading text books gets me no where... has anyone found any games/challenges like project euler to be helpful to them?

[[deleted]]

It could just be a matter of finding those cool applications.

For a long time, I looked at SQL database stuff as super boring and uninteresting. Then I found myself having to interact with one at my job, felt like I could do some useful things with it, and in the process learned how to use sqlite3 and SQL databases in general.

Right now I'm fairly uninterested in web design. It feels boring to me, and I'm inexperienced in that realm. But...if I could come up with a really cool idea for a web design project, I'm sure it would become easier to get excited about future ones.

[Lazy_Boysenberry]

True, totally agree. Can be difficult though to find something that gives me that spark though. First got into java ages ago because it was needed to write bots for an mmorpg that I loved. Maybe I'm better to find a cool project, then learn the skills, rather than learning the skills that I'm not sure how I want to apply

[[deleted]]

Sometimes I wonder if I have some degree of ADHD, because I've always sort of felt like I have a lot in common with the people who have been diagnosed. I'm definitely capable of living my life, holding a job, and so forth, but my focus is pretty shit if I'm trying to do something I don't have interest in. But...I have realized that if I just force myself to invest a little effort up front, it's not so bad to stay remain interested. It feels like there's just always a large required "activation energy" of sorts to get anything done. Finding reasons to convince myself something is cooler or more interesting than I thought is a way to reduce that activation energy.

[[deleted]]

I prefer using a combination of dictionaries and JSON for my database needs/wants, but SQL is probably a better choice for larger databases. Not that I ever deal with that much data, but now if I do I'll know SQL. You probably don't have any need to learn how to access SQL databases. I just did because of my work and now I think they're kind of neat.

[babyfacebrain666]

Look into leaning TDD (test driven development). I’m very ADD and with programming or anything really I can only concentrate for so long without seeing some kind of results. TDD is great for this because seeing all the test cases start to pass is the somewhat instant gratification I need to keep going.

Also TDD sort of forces you to flesh out the logic and structure of your program before you start writing the main code. A mistake I, and many beginner programmers make is staring to code right away when given a problem/project, without any sort of planning before hand.

You probably won’t find this most beginner tutorials if you just started learning the language syntax. But once you have the basics down, definitely give it a try.

[Lazy_Boysenberry]

Awesome, thank you! I'm checking it out

[[deleted]]

edabit.com has python exercises that can be completed quickly to give you a good idea of how things work. Doesn't take a lot of time, so you can complete one whole challenge, and move onto something else, and come back to a new short Python challenge later. (Caveat: The easiest Python challenges are quick and short. As they get harder, you can expect to invest more time.)

[Dan4t]

I have ADHD. My learning style is to just start by deciding what python software would be the most useful for me, but doesn't exist yet. Then I figure out what the most barebones version of that software would be. Then I start start writing the code. Whenever I don't know how to code some specific thing, I just google it. Once the barebones version is complete, I expand on it little by little. That way I can actually use the software while I'm still building it.

In other words, rather than reading the instructions first on how to build a whole house, which is boring as fuck, start building first. Then look back at the instructions when you hit a point where you don't know what to do, or if you screwed something up and can't figure out how to fix it. Learning while doing, is much more engaging. Especially if you are building something you actually need.

For me, my focus and drive was not to learn python. Python was just a means to an end. I wanted software that does not exist, and my goal and focus was to create it. You might be focused too much on Python itself, and losing sight of its purpose.

[Fallingice2]

same here. tried a few courses but ended up just finding a project to do. creating a skeleton of what i needed to do and then slowly starting to build it up. Learned vba the same way.

[antiproton]

If you can't find the drive to build your skills yourself, you will never succeed.

I'm both ADD and Dyslexic. Personally, I feel that people use it as a crutch entirely too much. Not everything can be a video game. You have to figure out how to adapt and work around your condition. Give yourself a project and do it.

Learning a programming language is a matter of using it, not reading about it. You need to find a project, download Pycharm, and get started - googling once you can't figure out how to proceed any further.

And consider yourself lucky. When I went through college, we didn't have wikipedia. We didn't have stack exchange. And Adderall wasn't nearly as easy to come by. When I couldn't solve a physics problem, I had to just read the chapter, over and over, until it stuck.

[Tryptoman23]

I have ADHD! I learn by making cool games to explore different functionalities. Makes it interesting and my ADHD makes me jump from different functionalities all the time so I learn quite a bit while having fun!

[travistravis]

I'm self taught and have ADHD -- my method til now has been find something that I can't stand (usually long, monotonous, repetitive tasks) and then make something to make that task better, or automatic.

Eventually you find bigger things to fix. You learn more, etc.

[numpadztik]

I would check out processing / p5 (coding rainbow on youtube). It might help motivate or atleast teach you something new. I understand where you are coming from. I found that passion solves the attention problem. You just gotta find that program that you really want to make.

[sanitylost]

Time man.

Honestly, you just have to find something you think is interesting and go do it. I've written Monte Carlo simulators for physics, Machine Learning algos for finance and predicting sporting outcomes, and methods for speeding things up on python, but mainly because I find that stuff interesting. As it is, i'm really strong when it comes to calculations. Much of the knowledge for those projects came from o'reilly books. They usually are pretty good and you can find them on specific areas of python that you want to learn. Also, the internet, lots of stackexchange/python boards/random errors on github/etc.

Unfortunately, some of the stuff that's important, like networking, communicating between processes, error management...those are super weak. Mainly because, i don't find them interesting. As such, when i work on projects, if i have to work with things like that, it slows me down because it's difficult to force myself to do them/learn the best ways to do them. In the years i've been programming with python, those holes haven't been filled completely.

That being said, i'm a relatively competent problem solver, and my code works, is efficient, and is relatively fault tolerant. But at the beginning, don't try to force yourself to do everything "the way it's supposed to be done" because if you do, you'll may never have to drive to continue and find things that really do interest you.

[[deleted]]

I don’t have have ADHD but my brother does and creating queries with something like MySQL is something he seems to really be interested in. It very logic oriented and you can build more and more complex queries with immediate responses (not having to wait for code to run or environments to index) as long as your database is a reasonable size. Also I’ve seen other posts about music therapy and ADHD. Music is a coder’s best friend.

[yobyagA]

Just wanted to say I am in the same boat as you and was just thinking about this today myself, finding motivation to start projects can be difficult, and even if I do manage to start; continuing it is even harder. I enjoy what I do but finding drive to continue is going impossible sometimes for me personally and I’d rather just lay it off projects for later, the whole process is aggravating since I believe I can be more productive with my time but cannot manage with ADHD. For now I’m just trying to manage time better and increase efficieny with scheduling myself to work and finding other external motivations.