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I spent $35 on a used Python crash course book from Goodwill and it finally taught me what 4 hours of free YouTube videos could not
I grabbed this beat-up copy of Python Crash Course at a Goodwill in Sacramento for $35, which felt dumb since there's so much free stuff online. But here's the thing, I'd been stuck on functions and loops for like 3 weeks just watching videos and copying code without really getting why anything worked. The book made me actually type out every example and do the little practice problems at the end of each chapter, no skipping. I finished the first project (a simple alien shooting game with pygame) yesterday after about 12 days of working on it 30 minutes a night after my day job. When the score counter finally popped up on screen I literally yelled and my dog freaked out. The free tutorials are fine but I think having something that forces you to slow down and build muscle memory is what got me unstuck. Has anyone else had luck with old textbooks over online courses, or did I just waste $35 that could've gone to more coffee?
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colegarcia6d ago
Read a blog post a while back from some guy who taught himself coding with nothing but old library books and a laptop with no internet. He said the key was that books can't autoplay the next lesson, so you're stuck sitting with the hard stuff until it clicks. There's actually a name for it, the "desirable difficulty" thing where slower learning sticks better long term. Videos let you nod along and feel smart without actually doing the work. Typing every example by hand sounds boring but that's probably exactly why it worked.
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