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1. 

   asha chaudhry December 29, 2014, 4:00 am

   hey abhik,

   neat q. u planning to?? 

   have you read shobhit’s piece?

   https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/how-to-learn-programming-in-8-steps

2. 

   Abhik Prasad December 29, 2014, 6:15 am

   It’s been on my mind for a while.

   I have read shobhit’s piece and its a great starting point. However, was looking at a bit more detail, especially into the problems people face.

3. 

   Perzen Darukhanawalla December 29, 2014, 6:42 am

   Hey Abhik,

   I’ve been wanting to learn to code too – it’s on my hobby wishlist since a while but i really don’t know how to start or even if I should start – just figuring out wordpress gives me a bit of a headache though I must say I’ve learnt a little bit of html thanks to playing around in the backend. I wonder if there is some kind of app or site that helps you learn it step by step in the same way Duolingo helps with languages..

4. 

   Rishi January 9, 2015, 10:27 am

   I don’t know if my answer is any relevant but I’ll share my thoughts:

   • Why did you start to learn coding ? — At the age of 13. However, I haven’t been into programming all through the years.
   • How did you learn…Did you google or buy a book or sign up for a course online ? — Learned basics in school and college, but most of the learning happened just by playing with code and various languages and building things that didn’t matter. I think I’ve tried all the methods you mentioned above, but the most effective when I look back is pick up a course anywhere (book, online) to learn the fundamentals of programming (please invest in this), and then start building something small. Then iterate and build something more complex, and repeat. Although I’m no expert in any of the languages (12+) I’ve coded till date, your best bet would be to start with php or python; or Ruby (but you might not learn some tricky stuff with Ruby). Again, my opinion because there are people who swear on a particular language. 
   • Did you face any problems. If yes, can you list some. — I started at 13 when there was no Stackoverflow or Internet at home. So I did face a lot of issues — it used to get frustrating when I was stuck on something small, and I used to spend hours and days sometimes to fix a small thing. But I think I enjoyed it because I wanted to make some random project which I had imagined work before I called it done. However, things now are very different — there is solution for any technical problem on the web. Just google it! 🙂
   • Did you finish…i.e. can you code now and have enough skills to build on your own ?
     It’s important to be constantly programming to learn stuff. If you really want to become a great programmer it takes years of consistent work. Having said that, if you’re just starting off and want to build something web-scale you might be setting up ourself for a failure. Start with something small, something fun, and go from there.
   •  How long did it take you to complete ? It depends on what you plan to build, you can write a simple web application in less than a week, and there are things that take months and years. No piece of code is ever 100% done. There will always be changes. The first fun game (TIC-TAC-TOE) I wrote in C language took couple of days, while the thing I’m working on right now for my startup…it has been nearly 15 months.

   Few thoughts on startups:

   #1. If you have a great team with a strong technical co-founder, focus on other things that matter. You can still learn programming but don’t let that become a priority, and don’t burden yourself with having to checkin code every week. 

   #2. If you don’t have a technical team or a technical co-founder, AND you’re planning to learn programming to build a startup then do account for at least few months of learning. It DOES take time to learn and get something out that is ready to deploy. Seek advice from people before you start building things. 

   #3. Focus on understanding fundamentals and spend whatever time it takes to get through that phase. It pays off in the long run.

   #4. Know what you want to learn. Programming is a broad term. There are hundreds of languages suited for different purposes. You could be writing simple standalone programs that don’t deal with data, or programs that deal with data, or just simple HTML pages, or fully data driven dynamic web sites, mobile apps, or hardware programming, or a lot of other complex things. 

   #5. It’s very tough to become an expert in all stacks of programming (backend, middleware, front end). I believe you can learn basics of all tiers but can really be good only at one or two things. If you really want to become an expert in one area, you will have to find people who are good in other areas.

   #6. If you’re looking at learning programming, start with learning basics of programming using php (?) on codeacademy or w3schools, then learn a bit of HTML and javascript, some basic SQL. As a project, write a simple application that lets you sign up, an sign in to an application, and once you sign in it will welcome you with your name. Then logout. This should cover most layers involved in web stack. Don’t focus on making the webapp look pretty. You can learn that stuff later or have someone else do it for you. The key is understanding what happens at each step.

   Good luck! 🙂

5. 

   Karan Ahuja January 9, 2015, 11:14 am

   i started learning as i am a geek/nerd 🙂

   i bought headfirst books and took niit classes in 2003 🙂

   no problems except sometimes with installations of different OS .

   other problem is to decide what to work on in free time as there are tons of ideas and tasks looking for that time.

   also learn by attending hasgeek events , podcasts , videos a lot now .

6. 

   Shwaytaj Raste January 10, 2015, 7:00 am

   Abhik, 

   I think the best occasion (and strategy) to learn is when you actually want to build something – like a product or a project. I found that working towards a target helps in identifying the right tools and also focus on what part of development software modules I need to learn. For eg: learning android or xcode (iOS) is tough because its pretty huge. In this case, you can decide what your app needs and then work on learning what is needed accordingly. Hope that helps.

   There are several options available online to start learning – team treehouse, codeacademy etc. You might get a start list here – https://stepjumpr.com/learning 

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