Bummer! This is just a preview. You need to be signed in with a Basic account to view the entire video.
Start a free Basic trial
to watch this video
Learning to code is its own type of adventure. Let's take a high level view of what it's like and how we can keep ourselves moving forward.
-
0:00
[SOUND] Hi, my name is Gabe.
-
0:05
I'm an iOS developer.
-
0:07
Today's a big day.
-
0:08
Are you excited?
-
0:09
Together, we're gonna start from the very basics, and work towards understanding and
-
0:13
proficiency in the Objective C language.
-
0:16
Which is used for buildings apps for iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TVs, and
-
0:20
Apple watches.
-
0:21
If you've done some coding before, certain things we'll talk about will be familiar.
-
0:25
They're probably still somewhat new to you.
-
0:27
If you've never coded at all, don't worry.
-
0:29
We'll be sure to explain things as we go, give you plenty of opportunities for
-
0:33
practice, as well as lots of other resources to look
-
0:36
to when you want deeper knowledge or alternate perspectives.
-
0:40
Treehouse prides itself on giving you lots of hands-on experience.
-
0:43
In fact, getting your hands dirty is probably the only way anyone could
-
0:47
ever learn to code.
-
0:48
So throughout this course, at the end of most of the videos,
-
0:51
you'll have code challenges to complete or questions to answer.
-
0:54
They are essential to making progress, so give them your full attention.
-
0:58
Not only will they reinforce what what you've learned, but
-
1:00
they may highlight things you didn't quite absorbed the first time around.
-
1:04
If that happens, it might be wise to re-watch the relevent videos or
-
1:07
poke around some of the materials I'll be linking to in the Teacher's Notes.
-
1:12
Most students won't grasp 100% of the concepts and details at first.
-
1:16
I know I didn't.
-
1:18
So don't let that bother you.
-
1:19
That said, if you get the feeling a second viewing of a video or
-
1:23
part of a video will help, then you're probably right.
-
1:26
For a more personal touch, I'd also suggest visiting the treehouse community
-
1:30
or speaking with an experienced programmer if you know one.
-
1:34
Before we get into the details and the hands-on portions of the course,
-
1:37
let's spend a few minutes talking about learning to code in general.
-
1:41
As you might suspect, it's different than learning other skills.
-
1:44
But don't be tricked into thinking it's impossibly difficult or
-
1:47
only achievable by techies or people with heavy math/science backgrounds.
-
1:51
All sorts of people from every walk of life have worked their way towards careers
-
1:55
in development and you can too, if you give it the proper time and attention.
-
2:00
While learning to code isn't harder than learning lots of other things,
-
2:03
it can be a bit confusing at first.
-
2:05
This is for a few reasons.
-
2:07
For one people often don't have an intuitive sense of what coding is and
-
2:12
how the code we write connects to the software we see.
-
2:15
I personally think that for the average person learning to play a musical
-
2:18
instrument is more difficult than learning to code.
-
2:21
But it's far less confusing.
-
2:23
Everyone has seen and heard pianos and guitars more times than they can count.
-
2:27
They may not be able to tell you anything about what a major scale is, but
-
2:31
they know when someone sings Do Re Mi correctly and when they don't.
-
2:35
That doesn't necessarily make it easy to learn to play an instrument.
-
2:38
But even right at the beginning, you have a great deal of context for
-
2:41
what you're trying to learn.
-
2:43
It's easier since you can make so-called learning connections
-
2:46
between the things you already know and the new things you're trying to learn.
-
2:50
If I showed you some code right now it would probably look like nonsense.
-
2:54
This doesn't mean it's harder to learn than playing an instrument.
-
2:57
In fact, I think for most people it's considerably easier but it can be more
-
3:01
confusing, especially at the beginning when you have very little context.
-
3:06
Okay, now that I've scared you into thinking you'll be hopelessly lost, it's
-
3:09
time to create some mental landmarks to help you navigate the way, and know that
-
3:13
you're still on the right track, even when you aren't exactly sure where you are.
-
3:17
Continue along to the next video, and we'll do just that.
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign up