How do I improve programming if I don’t know where to restart in learning?
Posted by ___RedditUsername___@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 14 comments
(Background info: I am a high school student who wants to pursue a career in something related to programming to support myself. I learnt some fundamentals a few years ago through free online courses, but for the past year I’ve basically just been building (very small) games learning some more stuff along the way.)
Programming has been basically the one thing I’d consider myself pretty skilled at, but right now, I’m a bit stuck. Taking classes sounds appealing, but I’m not sure what class would even suit the knowledge I already have. I know I have lots of gaps in my knowledge, but I don’t know what they are. As a result, I don’t know what I should be learning and what’s even important for me to learn.
TLDR; I want to fix the gaps in my knowledge and learn more, but idk where to begin.
newrockstyle@reddit
The fact you already build things is actually a better spot to be in than most beginners. The hard part now is figuring out what foundations are shaky instead of collecting more random tutorials.
Might be worth trying something structured for a bit. Boot.dev has a pretty solid reputation for practical backend focused learning without feeling like pure video consumption.
MartinEdge42@reddit
at your stage the bigger skill to develop is reading other peoples code. pick a small popular library on github - one you actually use - and read through its source. note what idioms confuse you and look those up. building small games is good for fundamentals but reading well-engineered code is what gets you from junior fundamentals to mid-level fluency. game dev as career is rough but the skills transfer everywhere
KandevDev@reddit
pick a real project you want to use, then build it. not a tutorial project, not "build a todo app", something you would actually use. the gap between "completed the tutorial" and "shipped a thing" is the entire skill. tutorials teach you what is possible. shipping teaches you what is hard. you will get stuck 4 times and have to learn things in a non-curriculum order, which is how working programmers actually accumulate knowledge.
Maleficent-Boss5564@reddit
I'm currently going through mentoring that I had Claude set up for me. It's great, imo. Pushes me, doesn't deal with distractions, explains things well.
mlugo02@reddit
Do you have a specific field in programming which you’re more drawn to?
___RedditUsername___@reddit (OP)
I’d say either web development or software related stuff.
Competitive_Aside461@reddit
Why not game dev? What prevents you from having that in your possible career choices set?
pastpresentproject@reddit
Just pick any real-world project to work on, and you'll immediately find flaws. Instead of rote learning theory, try building something more complex than those small games. If you get stuck, search for information and then come back to build upon that knowledge – that's the best approach. Don't worry too much, because everyone feels lost at first, it's just a joke.
grantrules@reddit
Go to college for computer science?
Otherwise, grab a book on whatever language you're learning and go through it. It's hard to tell you what to do because we have no idea what level you're at. You don't know what you don't know, we don't know what you do know lol.
There's all sorts of online courses out there
MIT's CS50 plus all the opencoursework stuff, lots of CS covered in there MOOC's python programming Odin Project web development
___RedditUsername___@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the resources :D I’ve kinda just been doing whatever I think is fun for the past few years, but recently I’ve been thinking about my future and what I think is fun (game development) sadly seems hard to get into.
grantrules@reddit
Yeah I mean pretty much every teenager that wants to program thinks game development seems awesome. The reality of it is that it's a very competitive field with generally poor work/life balance and at the end of the day, it's still just another programming job. What's the difference if you're churning out code for Halo 8 or writing software for smart fridges.. As a well-seasoned adult, a cool job is one that pays the bills (and then some), gives a good work/life balance, and doesn't make me want to step in front of a fast-moving bus.
I mean, if game development truly is your passion, and not just what you picked because you don't know what else is out there, go for it. But also college courses and internships will broaden your horizons to what's out there.
___RedditUsername___@reddit (OP)
Yeah, my plan I’ve thought a lot about it and decided that I just want a good paying job in programming because I enjoy it. I’ll probably do some solo game development by myself in my spare time.
Thanks for the insight :]
dkopgerpgdolfg@reddit
Nobody know your gaps better than you.
And I'd suggest you start at the beginning again, because you can just go very fast over the parts you already understand.
___RedditUsername___@reddit (OP)
Hmm ok ty :)