Hi,
I’ve been coding since more than 2 years and really find it hard and struggle to build even simpler of the things, should I give up on coding ???
I graduated in 2015 and unemployed since then, I tried to learn to code to make career in Web development but it’s been a struggle.
I can follow tutorials, articles, pick code snippets from stackoverflow/codepen, but when it comes to build something on my own I can’t do it and find myself going back to the basics and watch tutorials/consult documentations and books and pick code from there. How would I be able to survive in real world development which is of-course complex and complicated than the basics?
Should I just give up on coding and look for something else to do in life ?
I really look forward for help and suggestions regarding this.
Thanks.
Hey, what is it specifically that you struggle with? You say its the ‘basics’. The basics of what exactly? HTML? CSS? Javascript? Narrowing down what it is you really struggle with will help with suggestions on how to fix it.
With that said, learning to program IS difficult. A lot of people always need to reference at least a source or two to try and remember how to produce something specifically. However, many can ease that struggle by finding other resources to learn from, not just strictly FCC. I know some people who struggled for almost 2 years, such as yourself, to understand Javascript until they found a source to learn from that was more tailored to their learning abilities and style of learning and things started to ‘click’ for them.
I dont think anyone should ever give up on something that they are passionate about and really want to do.
At some point, you have to stop watching videos and following tutorials. These things only show step-by-step procedures or show the syntax of a command or language… some of these online courses/tutorials just spoon feed you, and not teach how to think and solve problems.
You need to APPLY immediately what you read, and PRACTICE CODING.
You don’t read a book from Chapter 1 to Chapter 50, or watch 100 videos from a youtube or udemy course from start to finish without applying or trying out, what you just saw. Your brain will just turn to mush and you won’t remember anything. Even worse, the little you absorbed, you can’t even apply in a real world situation.
So start coding. Pick a personal project and just do it. When you run into something you don’t know… only then do you google that particular problem and read the docs to solve that particular problem… then go back to coding.
And start from the basics.
THE VERY BASIC… like can you build a simple static website? Forget Javascript for a while, can you build a working website using nothing but HTML and CSS and maybe using one CSS framework. Why don’t you start your practice from there?
Then add some simple Javascript… just for user interactivity. Start from there…
I find coding in some ways to be a lot like mathematics, concepts can seem difficult or confusing when they are first introduced but once you practice and experiment with them you find that conceptually they are not very difficult.
I recommend making a commitment to making something once a day.
No videos
No tutorials
Just use the tools and knowledge that you have. If you come across a point where you can’t get something done then go watch a video or a tutorial.
When I tutor, people always tell me they are horrible at maths… That’s because they don’t practice it. As for giving up that depends on you, how passionate are you about this? I wouldn’t do something solely for employment.
Everyone is right - keep coding. If you want to do this, don’t give up - start at the beginning. This might seem silly, but set your first goal (for example) to be a basic HTML template. Save it. Take your basic template and decide your next goal will be…adding a header and a paragraph for example. If you need to look up ‘p’ or ‘h1’ tags , don’t be discouraged look it up and use it. Add another layer, and another. As said above, videos, books and such are great references, but getting things ‘set’ in your coding brain takes writing lots of code, over and over, even if you are doing lots of basics and it seems boring at times.
Like I said, if you really want to do this and are interested, don’t give up. You can do it.
- Break down the problem to tiny edible chunks
- Structure the chunks using comments
- Code the tiny bites
- If stuck read-search-ask (here is where you actually learn)
- Loop step 3 and 4 until the problem is solved
- If bored, do something else (tea? coffee? space travel?), then back to step 3
I think it all comes down to whether you’re passionate about it or not. Because if you are you will eventually get better and overcome this. And don’t worry that it takes a lot of time. Every brain has its own learning processes and maybe you just need more time and repetition for the information to sink in. On the other hand if you don’t like coding and only chose it to find well paid job? Well by all means give it up and start doing what you enjoy.
this is what my friend whos been working in field for two years told me.“Memorizing code is really only important when you’re in school lol. It is usually good enough to have a vague idea of how to do something in the workplace.”
When I was on a university learning my future trade (history) there was this phd who essentially told us “Just learn about the process. Dates and strict facts will come around by themselves at a later date.”. Learn how things are done in different coding languages and the pieces will eventually fall in places 
Deploy your own and very basic site/ portfolio. Then ask yourself what can I do to improve it and start shaping it to your own liking.
I dunno specs of your country’s work market but maybe try an internship first. Some companies will take upon themself to teach you a proper coding
If you have “a crisis of faith”, go check out Jordan B. Peterson’s Self Authoring programme. It straightened out hundreds of people and helped them set their proper goals- all that resulted in 25% increase in for e.g. academic performance I follow his videos for a year and am already set on my goals.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa9u5t3C0AI’
Give up if you get no enjoyment from it Otherwise:
Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing,
great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of
honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the
apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
― Winston Churchill
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your
strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender,
that is strength.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
Every hurt is a lesson, and every lesson makes you better.
— Syrio ForelI second what drguildo said.
I’m forty years old, and decided that I wanted a change. When I was sixteen, I got my first job in a restaurant. Turns out I’m better than average in fast food restaurants, and having a good head on my shoulders I’m usually compensated better than average. For a while I worked in shift and restaurant management. But in the last ten years, it’s really soured for me, and of course the pay was never that great anyhow.
In my early twenties, I’d occasionally apply for tech support jobs, but there was never enough opportunities here for that, and next to nil for programmers. Now that I’m getting serious about programming again, I’ve got a leg up in that computers and programming have always been a hobby, but of course, I’m still a forty year old novice going into an industry that’s got certain age related stigmas associated with it.
However, I refuse to let my age, nor my history color what my future looks like. I enjoy solving code problems. I’m up to the Wikipedia project at the moment, and I still have to do the occasional quick google search to remember the exact syntax of something, or how to lay out my Bootstrap divs…but once I have a basic design in place and start working on my logic, that’s where the fun is. And, as long as it remains fun, I know I’m headed in the right direction. The rest will come.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
Lance Armstrong
Look me in the eyes.
It’s okay if you’re scared, So am I.
But we’re scared for different reasons.
I’m scared of what I won’t become, and you’re scared of what I could become.
Look at me.
I won’t let myself end where I started, I won’t let myself finish where I began.
I know what is within me, Even if you can’t see it yet.
Look me in the eyes.
I have something more important than courage, I have patience.
I will become, what I know I am. Michael Jordan
“Maybe it’s my own fault. Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn’t. Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line, and not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner. That my game was built on flash, and not fire. Maybe it’s my fault that you didn’t see that failure gave me strength; that my pain was my motivation. Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a God given gift, and not something I worked for every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game. Or maybe you’re just making excuses.” – Michael Jordan
Don’t give up!!! If it was easy everybody would be coding!! 
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
-Muhammad Ali, Boxing Legend
“At the end of the day, you gotta feel some way. So why not feel unbeatable? Why not feel untouchable” - Conor Mcgregor
Programming is indeed difficult as are many things in life. Everyone is going to face self doubt eventually. Should I quit? Will they see through me and know I’m not a good programmer? I’m not good enough for that job…
This is a difficult question. In my opinion if you’re really passionate about programming and it’s just the learning that got hard or you lost motivation then keep pushing don’t quit! Perhaps your goals are no longer clear and you’re lost in tutorial/JS library hell. Find clarity and you’ll find motivation.
Now if you don’t enjoy programming at all and you’re only doing it because you want some nice easy salary and to live on an island somewhere then probably try something else.
Thanks for asking this question I added it to my FAQ post 
I know how you feel. Just this past week, I had a hopeless feeling about coding because I was really struggling with understanding some concepts that I felt like everyone else understood easily. But I really love coding, and I love the possibilities that come with knowing how to code, so I didn’t give up, and even though I really struggled and spent A LOT of time on a project that most people probably didn’t spend as much time on, I finally finished it, and what’s more, understood how it worked. If you’re really struggling, maybe take a couple days away from it, and clear your head. Then come back to whatever it is you’re having an issue with and break it down into smaller tasks. Google things you don’t know or don’t understand. And then practice the things you learn, because if you don’t use it, you lose it.
I also know how you feel with programming your own ideas and bringing them to fruition. Sometimes when I go to do that, I draw a blank, and I’m like, “Uh, what the hell do I do?” But like everyone else has said, take your idea, and then cut it up into smaller tasks. Look at other apps that may be similar to what you’re wanting to make for ideas and motivation. Keep building until you finally have the finished product you’re happy with.
<3
Hi Wess,
Thanks for the suggestion.
I started FCC last year, and here’s my progress so far,
I’ve been struggling with the front end projects since several months and I have a feeling that these basic single page projects should have been completed by now. Most of the time it’s JavaScript that I struggle with, sometimes making an HTTP request takes me several hours to figure out how to make it work correctly. Besides this I’m really concerned with productivity. How can I become productive being a developer(especially being a beginner) ?
Once again thanks for your thoughts and comments, I really do consider my decision to give up and start fresh.
Thanks.
I cannot see your project so far. It’s not easy to do the front-end projects, especially the final three or four. I’m still trying to do the last two. Yes, I do have to go back and refresh my memory on how to accomplish a specific function, but it’s worth it when I see the results that I am looking for.
One thing that I like about FCC is that the campers are willing to play and work together. It helps to have someone to bounce ideas off of (especially when my husband and friends get that glassy look in their eyes when I try to explain the logic that I’m trying to implement - of course, they do help with the final testings too).
Anyway, I am in the Pacific Time Zone and available to help review some of the algorithms and strategies if you would like to pair up.
Meanwhile, don’t worry about how fast or slow you are going. Just worry about getting the project to work properly. It really will make sense eventually, and you’ll be glad you hung in there.
Echoing what’s already been mentioned, it sounds like it’s time to exercise your thinking and coding skills through actual application. Resources are great, but building things is where the gaps in your knowledge are revealed. And this is a GOOD thing!
I can’t speak for others but I feel how you’re feeling about a few times a week 
and I recently started my first job as a developer already. It was hard for me initially to wean off of all the tutorials and readings because I loved the traditional classroom learning (receive info and passively absorb it), but coding requires a lot of repetition and application. Only you know how many hours you put in during those 2 years. A programmer gets paid to build things sure, but A LOT of that time requires you to fix broken things too and half the time you’re like “I don’t know what I did, but this works” or “I don’t know what I did but it doesn’t work”. Being able to break down problems and think through them logically helps tremendously (I had to learn how to do this more efficiently). Pull up a chair for that “I don’t know what I’m doing, this is so hard” feeling cause it’ll pay a visit pretty often. Try meeting with a community of coders that are also learning. I don’t know where I’d be without that. Find your WHY and hold onto it when your commitment wavers. Be patient with yourself and learn to have fun fixing 
Thanks for having the courage and honesty to post this 
Also another thing i’ve found myself works is try and get really good at one language, it’ll make it easier at getting good at other languages. my stuff is always all html right now then i go back and say where could i use java instead or css instead.