How long did it take before coding started to feel natural?

Posted by WarmHeight2951@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 11 comments

I still struggle with basic concepts sometimes for those who are further along how long did it take before programming started to feel comfortable?

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bowbahdoe@reddit

I'd say after a year or so.

Also to caution not to use AI at all when learning. I'm currently dealing with someone at year 3 who has around the knowledge you'd expect out of week 2.

I promise the struggling times are worth it

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Dominic669@reddit

Not using ai completely seems impossible and not as much as helpful, a single bug would take hours to detect while 1 minute with chatgpt or Claude

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desrtfx@reddit

a single bug would take hours to detect

And by investing that time, you'll actually learn.

The other way will teach you nothing and you'll make the same mistakes over and over.

Learning means struggling and is an investment in time and effort.

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ShadowRL7666@reddit

Well if you hired that guy replace him with me.

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bowbahdoe@reddit

Appreciate the gumption, but no just helping strangers

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paperic@reddit

Never.

You've some weird definitions of "natural".

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I think 10 is about right. At 5 years in I looked back and couldn't believe how bad I was as a beginner. At 10 years I looked back and couldn't believe how bad I was at five. But at 20, I could look back at 10 and say "well, I understand why you did that at least"

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MR_LAW11@reddit

For me it wasn’t one big moment, more like a slow shift. I think after a few months of actually building stuff, not just tutorials, I stopped staring at a blank screen in panic. You still get stuck, but basic things start feeling automatic.

The weird part is coding starts feeling “natural” right around the time you stop expecting to know everything.

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mxldevs@reddit

4 months learning the basics (spent tens of thousands on an intro to programming towards degree) and then the rest of the time was spent building stuff to get used to designing solutions and implementing them.