I kept copying code without reading it until a barista in Tulsa asked me what my loop did | Coding For Beginners - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
I kept copying code without reading it until a barista in Tulsa asked me what my loop did
Last month I was sitting at a coffee shop in Tulsa typing away when the barista looked over and asked what my for loop actually did, and I had zero clue. I had been copy and pasting from tutorials for about 2 months without once reading the lines out loud, so I started reading every line like a sentence before running it. Has anyone else had a random person ask them a question that exposed a bad habit?
Man, I have to push back on this. Copying code you don't fully get yet is how most people learn at the start. You see a pattern, you use it, and later the light bulb comes on. Nobody reads every line out loud in the first two months. That barista asking you a question proves nothing except that you got caught off guard. If reading loops like sentences was the magic trick, everyone would do it and nobody would need docs or Stack Overflow. Half of learning to code is just getting things to run so you stay motivated, not stopping to explain every line to a stranger.