DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU TOO CAN BE A PROGRAMMER TODAY

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For the sake of the topic, I am going to start by saying "it's never too old to learn some more"..

One of the first fears that come to mind most times for new programmers is if they can be able to afford costly classes for programming and if they are even going to cut through.

I am not here to tell you that it's very expensive or cheap or affordable, but at the end of this essay, you will decide on your definition of cheap, expensive or affordable.

Now, no good thing comes freely, do not let anyone deceive or cajole you into believing a mantra makes you very relaxed when you need to push.

The best things in life are expensive, now by expensive i don't mean money expensive. Your time is expensive, your attention is expensive, your ideas are expensive, it all depends on howuch priority you put on them.

Same thing goes for your learning process, it's never free if it's good, but you will have to decide on how best to pay to get the real value. Let me reiterate again, this is not bout money, I've seen people pay so much for programming classes, I've seen people attend the costliest universities in Nigeria, studying computer related courses and still lagging behind in programming which in most schools is even started at 100 level for introductions.

So, what am i saying in essence, what you are willing to pay determines a whole lot, and don't ever tell yourself that you are too old to learn anything.

Before we proceed, what is programming?

Computer programming (often shortened to programming) is a process that leads from an original formulation of a computing problem to executable computer programs.

Programming involves activities such as analysis, developing understanding, generating algorithms, verification of requirements of algorithms including their correctness and resources consumption, and implementation (commonly referred to as coding) of algorithms in a target programming language.

Source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate performing a specific task or solving a given problem.

Do you know that after all this my plenty sermon, you can be a self taught programmer? Yes. You can actually tech yourself programming but truthfully to a limit, you can carry yourself to a very good point where an expert won't have any issues discussing and sharing ideas with you thereby teaching you indirectly.

Here is what I can tell you about becoming a self taught programmer. The rational of becoming a self taught for something is very strong. This however depends on how far your first initial pushes will get you, because that ambition, that push, that original drive will need to fuel you the rest of the way. That is one way to determine how bad or good one could become at something.

Building a plan, a rough plan or a mantra can prove very helpful. I would say a rough plan, since plans tend to be cute, beautiful and motivated like babies, but there is a clause somewhere that most people tend to forget easily, they need to be changed often. Being ready to change them is a key here.

Avoid tutorials with complicated and rigid steps and also things like very long guides that don't divide the learning process, because if you get stuck at a step, it will feel like an overwhelming task going around it, the better approach is a following the rough plan.

So here is my example of rough plan:

(DJ turn the music up) I wish this was a discord channel so you can listen to some JAZZ music while reading this part

Rough Plan 101:

Fun:

Your plan has to be fluid, it has to have a relaxing thing about, it has to have the fun factor, if not you will hate programming so fast. You need to approach your learning process as a fun activity to do rather than a learning path that might never end or an office routine, because being a self taught is a bit different than going to school.

Here is what I mean by a fun approach:

Gamers: They always want to mess around with their video games, tweak it, make a mod or just break it in some sort of way.
Researchers: They want to automate some of the boring tasks they have to do in return to get the fun results they need, thus they learn most of what it takes to get those things out of the way. Most of you know about GB whatsapp.
Puzzle lovers: Computation power can always come in handy to do some calculations that we don't want to redo every now and then over the path of solving a big puzzle. (Puzzle here is a metaphor for big problems).

Same goes to any other field, since nowadays technology and programming have evolved enough to effect every field of work & entertainment. So you too can make your learning process fun and learn better.

Fundamentals:

Getting to learn 101 programming is not hard, in fact there are hundreds of websites out there that teach 101 programming for free while some are paid for. But the other important part is learning the fundamentals of computers and how they work, otherwise you could get carried way and not knowing how all this gibberish on the screen is showing up.

Reading books that introduce simple aspects of computers are important.
Learning about data structure of a desired programming language can be quite helpful.
Exploring algorithms and why the heck this thing is even important and how it can make life of a programmer easier.
Learn by doing in terms of the small pieces of information can be your boost too.
Learn bit by bit and get rewarded pretty quickly and try new things.
Download the knowledge once your brain tries to use a concept to solve a problem.

Community:

You need to find programmers around you who do what you are interested in, so they can also give you some pointers. Lucky for you, Github is there, Utopian where you can find programmers too and chat them up on discord, and hundreds of other online forums and websites can help you make this happen.

Choosing a technology or a programming language can always become a tricky thing, but you can always turn to the one that has a bigger community and beginner friendly. Don't forget this part.

Repeat:

Once you get a hang of how you learned one part, then you can go back and repeat that same process on the other parts of the programming language. Being obsessed with learning something new can help you find fun, learn basics and build further.

I can say for sure that it takes time. Being patient is important to avoid calling quits early. It takes practice and building various bigger pieces to get perspective on how to approach larger problems.