- Jul 4, 2016
- 112
- 54
I have a lot of books to learn different programming languages, HTML, CSS, but the one thing that helped more than that, is having a problem I really, really want to solve, or make easier or more efficient. And realizing that I can solve it by programming, and then trying to create the solution.
So you start with a piece of code, you google it, you get something working, but not quite the way you want it to. So you look through a book or two you have laying about, but now you're focused and know what you need to know. Sometimes you have to learn first the things you need before you can do it, so you rush through and learn it fast so you can get back to your original problem. Then you refine your solution, and at the end, not only did you solve your problem, but you learnt a lot.
Also: Learning from books are great too, BUT you HAVE TO be smart about it. You have to set aside time every day, and do some predefined amount of reading.
What I did is I got a book from the 'HeadFirst' series (they write books to learn programming, but they try to make it as easy as possible, pages have airy layout, and they try to inject their sense of humor). And then I decided, no matter what happens, I will read 15 pages every day. Then I had several psychological principles working to my advantage; I had precommitted to read every day, every day I get motivated to see how far I've gotten in the book, after one week I'm already at 100 pages, next week 200 pages, I get into a rhythm and made a reading-chain that I was reluctant to break, and the HeadFirst books are so easy that I never got stuck anywhere, and if there was days I just had no energy to read then I could still read 5 pages because the pages are so airy.
So you start with a piece of code, you google it, you get something working, but not quite the way you want it to. So you look through a book or two you have laying about, but now you're focused and know what you need to know. Sometimes you have to learn first the things you need before you can do it, so you rush through and learn it fast so you can get back to your original problem. Then you refine your solution, and at the end, not only did you solve your problem, but you learnt a lot.
Also: Learning from books are great too, BUT you HAVE TO be smart about it. You have to set aside time every day, and do some predefined amount of reading.
What I did is I got a book from the 'HeadFirst' series (they write books to learn programming, but they try to make it as easy as possible, pages have airy layout, and they try to inject their sense of humor). And then I decided, no matter what happens, I will read 15 pages every day. Then I had several psychological principles working to my advantage; I had precommitted to read every day, every day I get motivated to see how far I've gotten in the book, after one week I'm already at 100 pages, next week 200 pages, I get into a rhythm and made a reading-chain that I was reluctant to break, and the HeadFirst books are so easy that I never got stuck anywhere, and if there was days I just had no energy to read then I could still read 5 pages because the pages are so airy.