Two major mistakes I often make in programming

A year ago, I graduated from college and decided to step into the society. I have a lot of initial ideas and want to implement them, but I don't understand programming.

After following the advice of Yipit co-founder Vin Vacant, I started to learn programming by myself.

Now I finally learned enough knowledge to implement the prototype of my own product. It was a rough journey. If you are on the same path as me, I hope you will avoid making the same mistake as me.

Error 1: I spent too much time learning things I don't need.

With so many technologies and so many conflicting views, it is difficult for you to determine what is important and I don't know how to start. After reading a lot of the most popular articles on Hacker News, Quora, and Stack OverFlow, I am crazy. The following is a hodgedge list:

HTML, CSS, AJAX, PHP, Javascript, Heroku, Celery, SQL, jQuery, Django, S, nodeJS, BackboneJS, Ruby, Rails, MongoDB, Python

Among these technologies, I don't know which ones I need to learn, so I try to learn them all.

What I should have done at the time: I should have narrowed down this list and picked out the technology I needed to build the prototype.

Finally, I figured out what these technologies are doing and reduced the list to the following:

0. HTML: Construct the content of a webpage (such as the selection of links, titles, and other elements)

1. CSS: the style of the content (for example, the color of the content is changed when you move the mouse over the link)

2. Javascript: Make the Content Dynamic (for example, a menu pops up when a user clicks a link)

3. jQuery: A javascript library containing easy-to-use plug-ins (such as a slide display image)

4. Python: processing data (for example, reading User purchase records from a database or recommending products that users may like)

5. Django: A web framework written in Python connects the above technologies. It also provides many built-in and necessary functions. (For example, user logon and any database easily using python) The framework can greatly simplify your work.

Suneel Chakravorty

Error 2: I did not immediately start writing code

I spent too much time reading programming books. I'm not sure what I read is directly helpful to my project. What's worse, I didn't apply anything in the book, and finally found that it didn't work.

What I should have done: At the beginning, I should learn through some small projects. I later found a very effective learning method:

0. Actively write routines after reading some tutorials.

1. Select some simple projects and code them to implement them. For example, a simple blog or a voting application.

2. Repeat Step 2 multiple times.

3. Build your initial project prototype.

There are many benefits to doing so, and you can quickly overcome any fear of programming. You will see the fruits of your work. Most importantly, you can quickly develop the technologies required to build products.

Suneel Chakravorty: bole online-@ Sheng OMG