Message from @Deleted User

Discord ID: 372941126312656927


2017-10-26 02:48:02 UTC  

Creating bots and doing web design would be useful

2017-10-26 02:48:24 UTC  

If that even involves programming much

2017-10-26 02:48:30 UTC  

I honestly don't know

2017-10-26 02:48:43 UTC  

Why do you think you can't learn on your own?

2017-10-26 02:49:18 UTC  

I've tried to learn stuff like Python and Java myself with books and videos but

2017-10-26 02:49:38 UTC  

I think I lack the inclination to get it without more guidance

2017-10-26 02:50:18 UTC  

What don't you "get"? Honest question.

2017-10-26 02:50:20 UTC  

I have the option to take a class at school

2017-10-26 02:50:49 UTC  

I really don't understand what programming languages even are

2017-10-26 02:51:05 UTC  

I don't know how people figure what to put in and where to put it

2017-10-26 02:51:32 UTC  

I can't really tell if there's supposed to be some big list of premise commands

2017-10-26 02:51:39 UTC  

I getcha.

2017-10-26 02:51:51 UTC  

Or if people invent stuff and the computer just figures it out somehow

2017-10-26 02:52:01 UTC  

I don't even know how computers work really

2017-10-26 02:52:05 UTC  

OK, let me start by saying that "knowing how to program" is very much a continuum.

2017-10-26 02:52:58 UTC  

It's a huge skillset. For example, I make applications primarily for automated analysis and visualization of scientific data.

2017-10-26 02:53:16 UTC  

I don't know nuffin about languages like C and Clojure, and I don't need to right now

2017-10-26 02:53:36 UTC  

Similarly I know very little about networking

2017-10-26 02:54:08 UTC  

the "college question" when it comes to programming is a tricky one

2017-10-26 02:54:33 UTC  

I went the STEM route. I have two masters' degrees in engineering. But I didn't really know anything about coding until I got out of school

2017-10-26 02:54:53 UTC  

I taught myself. But those skills that I taught myself are used literally 10X more than anything I learned in school

2017-10-26 02:55:03 UTC  

I probably could have skipped all that college altogether

2017-10-26 02:56:13 UTC  

similarly the CIO where I work barely has a high-school diploma, and one of our mutual friends is a self-made multimillionaire who taught himself some tech stuff and got into the phone-dialer business.

2017-10-26 02:56:28 UTC  

Incidentally I'll be consulting with him to answer @Procella Eques 's question

2017-10-26 02:56:54 UTC  

I've also met people with CS degrees who can't actually solve problems using code

2017-10-26 02:57:31 UTC  

think about programming this way: different languages have different core philosophies and strengths/weaknesses

2017-10-26 02:57:59 UTC  

what I can do in server-side javascript, I can also do with Python, more or less. But some problems will be easier to solve with Python, others with Javascript.

2017-10-26 02:58:16 UTC  

Once you learn a single language, others come much easier

2017-10-26 02:58:34 UTC  

What does it mean to learn a programming language

2017-10-26 02:58:43 UTC  

I started out with PHP, then went to Perl, then C#, then Python and JavaScript

2017-10-26 02:58:45 UTC  

How similar is it to natural language if at all

2017-10-26 02:59:02 UTC  

It means you can solve problems using the grammar and syntax of that language.

2017-10-26 02:59:08 UTC  

"learning" is a constant process

2017-10-26 02:59:18 UTC  

that's the joy of it, but it takes some getting used to

2017-10-26 02:59:40 UTC  

So there's rules like grammar in the way you put commands in and commands are like vocabulary?

2017-10-26 02:59:46 UTC  

yes

2017-10-26 03:00:09 UTC  

Glad I studied linguistics for once

2017-10-26 03:00:22 UTC  

one thing that frustrates many people starting out (including me) is that the computer will do *exactly what you tell it*

2017-10-26 03:00:44 UTC  

you might not understand what you're telling it at first, but it will always faithfully execute your commands as long as your code is valid 😃

2017-10-26 03:01:05 UTC  

don't think of programming as something exotic or big-brain. it's not

2017-10-26 03:01:33 UTC  

at the same time, don't try to learn by diving into the code of some large project. you'll be asking yourself way too many questions to make any progress