The fame and glory of being a programmer
Learning a programming language for the first time is more than just learning a new language. It’s also about looking at the world differently and understanding how to use the tools at your disposal (ie: your computer) to optimize it.
For example, let’s say you asked your personal robot to move across the room while picking up cherries scattered all over the floor. In your mind, you would simply walk around picking up cherries and proceed to the other side of the room as you picked them up– it doesn’t really take much thought.
A robot, however, would need a very specific set of instructions on where to turn, move, bend down, pick up, watch out for walls — all while accomplishing the overall goal of getting to the other side of the room.
Programmers both understand how to think like that and how to optimize and automate their programs to make the computer do most of the legwork. They also know how to tear apart issues and build something from the inside out. They are generally very curious about the world and its inner workings. If you share some of those traits you’re well on your way. And if you don’t, you’ll learn!
The best way to understand this is to start programming. Doing the simplest of exercises you’ll quickly become familiar with what good/clean code looks like (saying a lot with a little). When you start out your code may be sloppy and long winded, but that’s totally ok! Practice makes perfect and you have to learn to crawl before you can walk.
As a fun exercise, next time you walk down the street or drive a car, try to think about all the steps that go into it and what dependencies exist. That’ll get you thinking like a programmer!
In the next post in the “Learn to Program” series we’ll look at Ruby and the best resources to get a handle on your first programming language.
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