Playbook: Learning How to Code

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Coding is a super power.

It allows you to create things, make money, and solve problems without spending much money. It's actually nuts. Think about 50 years ago. If you wanted to start a business, you'd probably need to buy land, materials, and hire a bunch of people. Building a company or creating a new product was friken hard and expensive! But now, all you need to do in sit down on your computer and type some stuff on a keyboard, then BAM - you have the next Instagram.

You have a power that no other young person has had in history. You are the first generation to have grown up with the internet and mobile. Use this to your advantage. Coding is essential and everyone needs to know how to code. You don't need to be an engineer to learn to code. Think of coding like French, it's another language you can learn, and you don't need to be an engineer to learn a language.

Code is a way to communicate with computers. Computers speak in logic. So, code is literally just learning how to type logic and give computers instructions. It's not hard, just put in the time and you'll understand how to code in less than 4 weeks!

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Real talk from Michael: "THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE preventing one to become a good programmer is lack of determination (and no this isn’t some “work hard” motivational bullsh*t). You have the exact same amount of information as another programmer if you followed the same courses. The only thing separating you from them is when you give up on solving the problem & how efficient you are. Turns out, the “determination required” bar for most projects is really high, much higher than we’d expect (see optimism bias & Dunning Kruger effect on Wikipedia). So what most beginners do is quit mid project, think they aren’t set for programming, or need to go back to learning (even after taking 5+ courses), or resort to “un-legit” tactics like copying code - you ain’t fooling nobody with that. Don’t be part of that 99%. Push through it, that’s a natural part of programming."

If you're a beginner, here's a good article written by Kristina Arezina: đź“ť How I Learned To Program At 16 Years Old

Ok, so let's get started...

These are the 4 languages you should understand:

1. Python (used in AI)

2. Javascript

3. HTML

4. CSS

After completing the following steps, you'll have a basic understanding of code. To give you an idea of how long it will take to get good at coding, I'd say if you put in 8 hours/week to learn, you'll have a decent understanding in 2 weeks, know how to code in 4 weeks, be good at it in 10 weeks, and be able to work at a company and get paid in 24 weeks. This will be valuable for internships next summer.

Here are your next 6 steps:

  1. Schedule 1-2 hours each day to learn how to code. Starting from today! Yes, NOW! Put in the work and it will pay off when we officially start TKS.
  2. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvK0UzFNw1Q (5mins)
  3. Learn Python (free): https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python → this language is used for creating lots of applications and many say it's the best back-end language to get started with. It's used for coding Artificial Intelligence.
  4. Learn HTML (free): https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html
  5. Learn CSS (free): https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-css and https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-responsive-design
  6. Learn Javascript (free): https://www.codecademy.com/learn/introduction-to-javascript → this language is super useful for everything.

From Adam:

After doing that, you'll have a good basic understanding of the main coding languages.

Then, you can do these courses to actually build stuff:

When you're done that, you should get exposure to these languages:

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Don't just do courses all day. You need to BUILD STUFF! Work on your own projects. That's the best way to learn. Use the courses as a starting point, then build things yourself. Figure it out. Make projects. If you don't do this, you'll get burnt out with the courses and you won't have anything to show for it. So please, build stuff as soon as you can!

Pro tips:

  • Start now. Don't procrastinate. This isn't school, you'll actually use this stuff in real life!
  • Schedule 1-2 hours each day starting NOW. TODAY! Don't be lazy.
  • Completing this before starting TKS will give you a HUGE advantage. Trust me.
  • The best way to learn code is by yourself. Learn how to figure stuff out. Don't depend on other people all the time. Put in the effort and time and you'll see the results. If you're stuck and you've tried to figure it out, THEN ask someone for help.

Unity

Lastly, if you're into gaming, virtual reality, or augmented reality, you need to learn Unity.