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Wesley Pennock
1,141 PointsSpent Two Years Trying to Learn Programming and Failed,Need Help.
Hi I need some help deciding which path to go down. I have tried for two years to learn programming through Team Treehouse and other websites. Every single time I give up or just fail. I have no idea the technologies I need to learn, which has become problematic in the past two years because I seem to keep needing to know more and more to do the most basic things. For instance two years ago I could have just know Bootstrap and built a website or possibly a web app. Now there are so many more choices. I am lost. All I want to do is to build web apps for the lols seriously. Web sites and apps are the closest thing to direct mind to computer interface around currently. I have so many ideas but I just can't code them. I am not going to give up but I am at a loss as to what to do next. Any ideas?
EDIT: I see myself neither as a designer or a coder just a creator. Furthermore thanks for any suggestions and help in advance. Lastly and most importantly I think the reason I keep failing is because it takes to long to learn enough to start implementing. Plus I get frustrated by not having a clear cut answer.
5 Answers
Bryan Zollman
1,624 PointsYou'll want to learn Ruby on Rails or PHP for the back end with jQuery for the front end user interface. CSS is a must or layout and presentation.
It might be a good idea to focus on one area and work with a team. Sounds like you might want to focus on the user experience side of things (jQuery and CSS).
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest Teacher"I see myself neither as a designer or a coder just a creator."
This is a great way to think about yourself.
Build your ideas in anything. Don't let choice paralysis take you over. Start one. It doesn't matter if you don't finish it because you get bored. Just move on with what interests you. If you're interested in something you'll learn something that will help you fulfill that.
James Barnett
39,199 Points- First do the HTML Foundations course
- Next apply your knowledge with this HTML Exercise
- Then do the CSS Foundations course
As you go through these videos do these corresponding exercises from this course use codepen to complete the exercises.
Check selectutorial and learn layout when you get the relevant sections.
If you are having trouble with syntax for HTML or CSS consult HTML Dog. If you are confused about a concept read the relevant section from this [online guide](learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/)
When you've done all of that, come back here for a good first website project.
Wesley Pennock
1,141 PointsThanks I needed something concrete. I am going to modify your plan a little I am going to start and finish the Web Designer track for once and use http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/ plus http://learn.shayhowe.com/advanced-html-css/ as I go. For each little section I will do a project of my own as I learn. As for a first website/app idea I have plenty of them =D.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsMy advice on a first website, is to start small. A common mistake made by people who are new to learning to program are the unknown unknowns, they don't know what they don't know thus vastly underestimating the difficulty of some projects. Taking on a project that is too hard too early is a great way to will your momentum. Starting small quicks you a quick win as you can create something to show others sooner.
Wesley Pennock
1,141 PointsSo a bootstrap portfolio?
James Barnett
39,199 PointsThese activities are good ones ... http://www.pairuptocode.com/Level1.html#
Wesley Pennock
1,141 PointsIf you have any more please share them and thanks. Should I upload them all to Github or Bitbucket?
James Barnett
39,199 PointsFor HTML, CSS & JavaScript I prefer to use [codepen](codepen.io) as it's a working version, you don't have to fork the code and then upload it onto your own server to see if in action as you did with Github & Bitbucket.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsYou can make a resume in CSS. After that you can add print stylesheet and print button. Once you've taken the Responsive Web Design course, you can convert it to be responsive. Here's one I've made http://codepen.io/jamesbarnett/full/zGDBl try and re-create as much of it as possible without looking at the CSS.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsIf you are looking for some CSS practice I collected together some of the random pens I've made over this past year while learning CSS. I'd suggest trying to re-create as much as possible without looking at the code and to research online how to do something.
http://codepen.io/collection/ehqoD
A good perspective on this is called struggle-based learning
Sally Baker
10,630 PointsEach technology is a building block for the next.
- Start by building some simple one page text and image websites with HTML & CSS on topics that interest you or perhaps a 'resume' page.
- Then create some 'added features' with Javascript or JQuery.
- Then you might want to look at Wordpress or move directly to backend languages like PHP or Ruby on Rails.
Or... you could concentrate on ideas and let others do the coding for you:
- Buy a nice big plain paper notebook and start sketching out your ideas for apps, what will people do in the app, what will they see on the screen, if they press this button what do you expect will happen, etc...
- Go to local website/developer social events and get to know some other people interested in the field you might like to collaborate with
- try freelance websites where you can pay someone else to code your idea
- If you have a solid idea you could even put together a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.com to raise funds to pay for professional developers
Adeeb Syed
3,275 PointsThanks a lot for the exercises James. Just tried the html exercises from teaching-materials, it felt good to see a site and re-create that site myself with code. Will be going through the css exercises and pairuptocode soon!