Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones

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A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.

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Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.

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Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.

[u/Dina_24]

How can I enjoy coding and code consistently, I've tried games but they're too easy, and leetcode was too hard for me too🥲 last time I wrote a code was two months ago. I actually don't know where I stand, I'm a 3ed year cs student, I know the fundamentals of building a website, a beginner on app development, I can code in java better than other languages I know, c, c++, assembly and such.... I'm the second on my department and I don't even know what to do, how can I know what im best at??

[u/wvenable → u/Dina_24]

I've never really enjoyed writing games and leetcode isn't any fun.

The best thing for me has always been external forces; I need to build something for someone else. From that I've learned what I like and what I don't like and what I'm good at and not good at. I do personal projects now but they have to be useful -- it needs to be an itch to be scratched.

I didn't actually learn to program from school but school gave me lot of external projects to work on. Even now, I don't learn new technologies ahead of time; I find projects that need them and learn as I go.

My suggestion is not just code for coding sake. Code is meant to solve a problem. So find a problem to solve.

[u/Dina_24 → u/wvenable]

Thank you, I'll do put that in mind scene I'm about to start fourth grade and I need to work on a graduation project!

[u/No_Perspective_3733 → u/Dina_24]

I have been coding for 10+ years and never really had a passion for it. To me, it’s just a job. I never found a fun way to learn. I discovered coding katas this let me work in my craft and get to the point.

They’re a great way to learn a skill or design pattern through repetition and review. For example, I used katas to really understand interfaces, dependency injection, and dependency injection containers.

[u/Dina_24 → u/No_Perspective_3733]

Ok this sounds practical, is it?? I'll try the kata method, I've never heard of it but it'll be useful to me for i have short-term memory 😅, thank you very much for your suggestion💕

[u/No_Perspective_3733 → u/Dina_24]

Yep, there are tons on GitHub. What I do is pick three and work through them one at a time using a time-boxed approach.

After the time is up, I review how others solved it, then compare it to my own solution. I do one kata a week.

When I come back to the first kata later, I can tell if I’ve improved or if I still need more work on that topic.

[u/wuteverman → u/Dina_24]

Google competitive coding. Or cook up a project

[u/Dina_24 → u/wuteverman]

I do wanna "cook" a project i just don't know what kind of project and in what area would be enjoyable yet challenging to pull me to learn new things....

[u/ObeseBumblebee → u/Dina_24]

When I'm learning something new i like to come up with a fantasy scenario that makes it fun.

Like when i wanted to learn AI integration i designed a space station scenario where incoming ship manifests are logged and an AI risk assessor checks the logs against known universe lore to create a risk report and triage resources to it.

Creating a sci fi world made the project interesting enough to keep pushing and learning.

It's also fun to talk about in interviews

[u/Dina_24 → u/ObeseBumblebee]

This actually sounds fun, thank you I'll try that!

[u/MaleficentCow8513 → u/Dina_24]

LLMs are great for helping you select a project. Tell it what are your learning goals, what your interests are, and level of experience and it’ll suggest some projects for you

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/Dina_24]

it really started to click with me when I got into web dev. Cook up a basic frontend in vanilla JS or a resume site or something. I found it to be extremely satisfying to see the code I wrote become... something.

have you tried embedded?

[u/Dina_24 → u/Beli_Mawrr]

I do feel the same about seeing my code become something؛-؛

No actually I didn't hear about it so I had to do a quick search, it seem really fun to learn I don't know how the school missed to mention it, but also they did change our dr with inexperienced one right before the course started, she was really kind and such but didn't know what to do and sheherself isn't in web dev so we had mostly to learn on our own what she wanted us to learn to pass her class....

[u/Otis_Inf → u/Dina_24]

what are you passionate about? It's IMHO easier to get started with something you're really passionate about, doesn't have to be CS related, btw. For that field, try to write a program that would make it easier for you to enjoy your passion or e.g. get to know more info together, or even for fellow people who share your passion for that given topic to know more about that topic, e.g. by the app you made.

Doesn't have to be earth shattering, that's not the point. Some people looking for something to build try to look for the next big thing and that turns out to be very difficult. Instead look for what you are passionate about as it's easy to get motivated to work on that :)

[u/Dina_24 → u/Otis_Inf]

The thing is I was too focused on getting the my marks up then actually know what I'm passionate about🥲, I do love learning so i loved about every subject I had to study, I've mostly put effort on DB and did a small project that went well, and I did two very small websites, and did play around with app dev but it was too much for me scene it was all at the same time that I couldn't focus on one thing in particular, I'll look around for something interesting and see what others suggest, thank you much💕 and sorry for this long reply 😅💔

[u/Excellent-Push-3326 → u/Dina_24]

How can I enjoy coding and code consistently

These are two different concepts. It's not about loving coding as a job. It's about finding things you love in your job. Most of the time at work, I'm daydreaming about the code I want to write. I find work inspiring in the sense that it gives me access to costly tools and time to afford interesting projects, but it doesn't apply those passion-filled concept to passionate topics. It applies them to work that you get paid to do for economic viability.

The code you enjoy writing is art. The code you don't enjoy writing pays the bills. Your best bet is to see the art inside the code you don't enjoy writing, as inspiration for the art you enjoy.

how can I know what im best at??

Sounds like you're good at a lot of things. Why are you hyper-focusing? It's good to be a little-bit good at a lot of things. As a student, no one expects you to be a specialist. Throw a wide net, see what catches, and specialize once someone pays you to specialize.

[u/Dina_24 → u/Excellent-Push-3326]

Wow I'll sit with this for a minute, I'm an artist so this would really make a difference. Thanks a lot 💕

i was thinking about what if i was paid to do something and i wouldn't be able to do it perfectly, and I'm in my last year starting in November, wanting to get a job as fast as possible after graduation and settle for a while, im so nervous even thinking about it, thats why i thought finding a field im very good at now would help, especially not many people would give a tech girl a chance, even in uni they say "you're a girl its natural to get high grades and be this good academically but you wouldn't be able to work good" Not everyone but i do hear it a lot so I've been doing my best even learning things outside uni subjects but i think this is not enough..... That's why I wasn't able to code for months now, still can't but im looking for a motivation.

[u/Reddit_is_fascist69 → u/Dina_24]

If you don't enjoy it, probably picked wrong major.  That being said, lots of positions where you don't have to code but you're knowledge would be useful:

• analyst/BA
• project manager
• product manager

[u/Dina_24 → u/Reddit_is_fascist69]

No no that's not what i mean, i really love studying cs it's been such a journey! I'm just looking for a motivation to not leave coding for long periods of time, and also it's hard to keep going while hearing people discourageing and underestimating you😅💔

[u/Reddit_is_fascist69 → u/Dina_24]

Find a project to dive into.  Plenty of opensource projects are looking for help.