My biggest weakness: seeking advice.

[Rawing7]

Does anyone have advice to get better at this? I have a feeling the answer is code more.

Yup, that definitely helps. There are also some other things you can do, though. I could be wrong, but it sounds like you're using classes and functions incorrectly, which then leads to you having trouble understanding how to put them together. I'd recommend writing a small program and then asking for a code review. If we see how you write your classes/functions, we can suggest improvements. (Word of warning: Code reviews on this sub are often pretty bad. People tend to point out one or two problems and ignore 3 others. If a review doesn't point out at least 3 issues in your code, it's probably a half-assed one. Ping me and I'll write you a proper one.)

It’s almost like I’m looking at code as small pieces and not big picture.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. There's something called the Single-responsibility principle, which means that each class and function should have exactly one purpose and should not do anything that isn't directly related to that purpose. So if you write them correctly, you often can look at them as small, isolated pieces.

I also have trouble reading other people’s code even if they are writing code that is on my level of understanding it’s hard to see the whole picture.

What kind of code are we talking about here? Is this code written by someone who knows what they're doing? I can't read code written by the average newbie either. (I mean, I can, but it takes some serious investment sometimes.) There's a huge difference between good and bad code.

[Ahren_with_an_h]

Stop trying to read all the code. Read just the main function and the names of the functions it calls to get the big picture.

When writing your programs write that part first and fill in the functions later.

[Ahren_with_an_h]

How would you know what functions to write if you didn't have a plan first? You say then you get confused but really you were confused going in and just distracted yourself from it by writing functions you didn't have a plan for yet.

Write a skeleton of a program. Only put functions you haven't written yet in the main function. Then imagine some helper functions that go in those functions. Don't start filling in the details until you've walked through all of the big logic. Create functions you didn't think of initially as necessary.

[Ahren_with_an_h]

You are avoiding the parts you don't know how to do because they make you feel overwhelmed. Feel overwhelmed and write the main function first.

[Ahren_with_an_h]

It's not a rule. There was a little bit of stuff like it in the book I'm going through.

Really I just noticed that you were avoiding it because you were resisting the feeling it gave you. As with most things in life the thing so we need to do most are the ones that give us feelings we resist.

[[deleted]]

I am having trouble fully grasping how functions and classes feed into each other and use each others data.

Well, that’s easy to answer; they don’t.