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James Hammond
1,297 PointsHow do you learn? [Motivation]
Hello World! (pretty much first time poster...also hope you got that haha)
I am currently in the C# track, as recommended by my brother. I had an idea for a mobile app, and am really excited about it! Something I would hope to release on all mobile platforms, (well, probably not windows phone, so just iOS and Android)
It was suggested to learn C# so i can make apps through Xamarin...and wouldn't have to learn Swift and Java simultaneously (also cannot afford a mac, so swift is out the..WINDOW...cringe lol(also realize I can't test mac apps on VS2017 without a mac...but i can at least write some code));
So here is my question (s);
There is a lot to learn, I get that. I can't help but feel discouraged when I don't pick up on what my buddy Jeremy is laying down. Is this normal? I've been in it two weeks (i know not very long) should I be able to think natively on the concepts even in the basics course by now?
What do you guys do to gain inspiration and motivation? For me, I think about the app I want to create, and how good it will feel to even put something on a mobile device i can hold in my hand.
2 Answers
Dane Parchment
Treehouse Moderator 11,075 PointsOf course it is normal for you to not understand everything completely, you are a beginner programmer! Programming is a very complex field, that requires very abstract levels of thinking, unless you are some sort of prodigy, you are definitely not going to pick this up in a couple of weeks. Remember how to program is like learning a new language, and you definitely don't pick up a new language in just a couple of weeks.
In order to gain motivation, I just simply keep coding, every day I write a little code or try to learn some new concept I have never done before. While I like your idea of thinking about the future programs you will write, a lot of beginners tend to experience burnout because they decide that they want to take on a very large project that they don't have the experience to write. Remember that apps are generally written by a team of people, very rarely does one person have the experience to write an application from the ground up on their own, especially if you think it is a complex app that will be bringing in the big bucks!
Instead for now keep your motivations simple, you know just do your best to understand the basic concepts of programming, and the syntax of your language of choice. Don't focus to much on your masterpiece application, it will just keep discouraging you because of its complexity. So as I mentioned before, focus on mastering the basics for your motivations, baby steps as they say!
Once you can comfortably program smaller applications with your language of choice, then you can move onto the reason you got into programming in the first place!
Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 PointsWhat I do is that I'm building some small programs after each course, but this can sometimes be hard because it's not always easy to come up with a new project idea :-P
I don't know if you already have noticed this, but Jeremy is giving some nice project ideas in his wrap up videos (check the teachers notes) :-)
James Hammond
1,297 PointsI did see those! going to work through some of them (did all of the basics projects)
Right now I am working on my own starbucks console experience from the Objects section of the C# track :)
James Hammond
1,297 PointsJames Hammond
1,297 PointsNever thought about it like that.
Thats why I had quit before, I took the Java course, and assumed i understood everything. Then I went to make an app and couldn't figure something out.
Thanks so much for your reply, this will definitely help me in my journey :)