Last week I shared the idea that we will succeed more at improving our lives if we take the Kaizen approach. Small steps in the right direction, instead of a big bang approach.
I read an article this week about being in a rush to learn to program. (Thanks, Charles, for sharing it.) The article was written in 2001, but appeared again recently on Hacker News.
Drumroll first…
Hacker News is a community site with a list of interesting topics. People submit links to articles, and readers vote and comment on them. Most of the articles are technical. But the guideline is that links have to be “deeply interesting”.
This article has made the list almost every year for the past 13 years. It’s been translated into more than 20 languages. The author is Peter Norvig: an American computer scientist with a distinguished career.
Enough build-up. The article is called “Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years”. Gasp!
What’s the rush?
You can read the article yourself. I want to share the opening remarks.
You’ve seen books with titles like: “Teach yourself [insert programming language here] in [some short time e.g. 24 hours or 1 week or 21 days]”. There are a ridiculous number of these books. And then there are the online courses and tutorials that claim the same. (Novig doesn’t mention these – the article is over 20 years old.)
Novig makes this wonderful statement:
“The conclusion is that either people are in a big rush to learn about programming, or that programming is somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else.”
We know that programming is not easier to learn than anything else. So the answer must be that people are in a rush. They want instant results. They want a new job and career tomorrow. They want an easy route to success. And they believe that programming is their path to fortune. (I can hear the programmers laughing.)
I get plenty of calls from people who want to start a programming career. They are unhappy when I tell them that they won’t be a programmer after a week’s course.
If you’re an experienced programmer, you know there is no quick trick. You have to learn to think like a programmer. That’s harder than learning the basic syntax of any language. And basic syntax is not enough. You have to get to grips with the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the language you use. And you have learn more than one language and technology. And expand your design skills. And continuously learn more and improve.
Novig quotes from the book “How to Design Programs” by Felleisen et al: “Bad programming is easy. Idiots can learn it in 21 days, even if they are dummies.” But (I hope) nobody wants to be a a bad programmer.
So what do you do?
It’s a little like the Kaizen approach. Don’t give up – just be realistic. Don’t expect miracles in minutes.
And start. The sooner you start learning and practicing, the sooner you will see progress. That is true for beginners and for experienced programmers who want to expand their skills.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.