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My uncle told me to start with C++ and it set me back months
My uncle, who's been a software engineer since the 90s, told me last year that if I wanted to learn 'real' coding, I had to start with C++. He said it would teach me discipline and everything else would be easy after. So I spent three months trying to wrap my head around pointers and memory management before I could even make a basic program that did anything useful. I was using Code::Blocks and just felt lost every single time I opened it. I finally switched to Python on a friend's advice, and within a week I had made a little script that sorted my movie list. I get what my uncle was trying to say, but man, starting that hard almost made me quit for good. Has anyone else been given advice that was just way too hardcore for a total beginner?
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the_nora6mo ago
My cousin tried to get me to learn Haskell as my first language because it was "pure". I spent a whole weekend just trying to install the tools and never wrote a single line of code. That kind of advice comes from a good place but it forgets how frustrating it is to start. Getting something, anything, to work is way more important at the beginning. I'm glad you switched to Python and stuck with it.
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thomasb416mo ago
Feel your pain, @the_nora. I once spent three days trying to install a text editor before realizing I could just use Notepad.
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dylanwells5mo ago
Honestly, that's a special kind of torture.
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