Why You Shouldn’t Just “learn to Code”, but Strive to Solve the Problem
If you’ve read Lifehacker for over five minutes, you probably know that we have tons of resources on how to learn to program . You will also know that it is still difficult . Part of the problem is that coding is a tool, not a goal. To really learn how to use it, start by finding the problem you need to solve.
As engineer and YouTube engineer Kevin Geese explains in the video above, most educational coding resources start with choosing a language, learning its syntax, or diving into obscure coding theory. This is all well and good, but most of us want to learn how to program because there is a particular problem that we would like to solve, or something cool that we would like to do. By starting your educational journey with the tools you want to create, you will have a better foundation:
Learning “programming” is like practicing a balance. It will make you a great musician, but if you never play the song, it will be very frustrating. It’s really hard to learn something when you’re not doing something cool.
We touched on this very concept last week in our Tough Robot Robot Arm Guide. While not many programming tutorials will begin with “building a robot,” the process involves learning to program in the Arduino programming language, which is similar in many ways to C / C ++ and Java. Skills that Kevin pointed out are mostly transferable. Having a specific project that you want to work on and solving all the little problems along the way will help you learn how to program more than just grab a random Java or C ++ book and read a will from cover to cover.
How to learn to code | YouTube via Reddit