The only thing to fear in programming is … ? Well, once upon a time, my fear of programming was exactly that – the fear of writing the actual code.
The world of programming (or Software Development) is generally great. The pay and perks are good, given the current demand for programmers. One can say it is a pretty solid career. However, a lot of people are afraid of coding or the idea of learning to code when they hear all the technical terminology.
Why do you fear writing code? Are you scared that you’ll mess up or break something?
Of course, you might mess up along the way…the reality is that blunders are pretty normal as you improve yourself in the programming world. I doubt that anyone was “born to code.” The more you fail at something, the more you get to understand it better and find ways to easily improve. I mean, to be good at something or for it to come naturally, one needs to devote their time and passion to learning about it.
We can admit that watching tutorials and the process of learning how to code can be daunting. It can sometimes be tedious and it can make you feel like, “maybe this is not for me.” The challenge here is to take coding/programming at face value. We often don’t imagine how we would apply the concepts in real-life scenarios. Learning to code can be intimidating. But you’d be surprised to know that every successful programmer (or Software Developer) whether they are a junior, intermediate or senior, goes through the same process of ups and downs.
To overcome your fear, you need to take note of a few things.
- Fear of the Unknown
It is human nature to be afraid of new things or unknown things. While the terminologies can be intimidating, they are often easy to learn. Understanding the fundamentals will help you as time goes by. Most people think they are bound to fail. At first, yes this is the case. However, if you constantly tell yourself this, it is bound to happen.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day. (Start Small)
Don’t take a giant leap, you are not Neil Armstrong. You don’t need to make a big shot and think about creating a big, gigantic website in the initial phase of your learning. Learn to master one programming language/concept at a time. We all have different learning abilities. One of the most common mistakes that people make is jumping from one language/concept to another without fully understanding the basics.
- Find Some Good Resources to Learn Coding
It is very frustrating when you can’t find the right resources to help you learn something. Even with a powerful tool like the internet, one can become inundated with information and resources and not know which exact path one needs to take. Before learning, it would be best to evaluate or analyse the information that is available before you. This could mean you can learn/read a tutorial twice before determining if that is something right for you.
In essence, there is nothing to fear in programming. No matter how little you know, it is very unlikely that your computer will get damaged just because a piece of code doesn’t work. The only thing to fear in programming is not trying. That’s it!
