A bit long to read, but here’s my programming path and advice: I started with C++,failed it the entire year, but the next year I attended a few extra classes(no pun), i eventually understood the different concepts and passed it very well. I then discovered Python, it was much easier to grasp and found a lot of use cases for it. I’ve been building applications with Python/Django for years now, loving it. I also watch videos and read books about Algorithms, Data Structures etc to enhance my skills. My advice to anyone starting out, especially in a non-academic way: -Pick a language that you can build a small project with -Try to understand how the code works -Add more functionalities to your project -Never copy and paste a piece of program that works but you don’t know how. -EVERY BUG IN A PROGRAM IS A LESSON,AND LEARNING NEVER STOPS.

Start small but have something specific you want to build.

I have no idea what they're talking about but I'm just like "Mmm, yes, makes sense. That's right, yes, LISP is best, of course."

I've been writing code for 9 years. I almost can't believe I have reached the level I have reached. When I first started out I seriously doubted I could ever become a software developer. I also almost dropped out of my studies because I felt like they kept adding material on top of the stuff I was still struggling to understand. It is very abstract when you're not familiar with it. When I got my first job I was still not good at coding, but slowly I got better and better and it became a lot more natural to me. I guess you can compare it to learning to read or learning a new language. Things became more and more obvious to me. At this point, I feel like I can understand most concepts and I can learn new frameworks fairly quick. So I really recommend that if you study it and you're close to giving up. Just keep grinding. You will end up learning it if you put the effort into it. On a side note. I've noticed that some of the developers I studied with, who found it super easy back then, are now struggling. Being an employee is more than just being able to code, and some of these former classmates have their own way of doing things, and sometimes it does not align with working in a team or working in a company on bigger projects. So yeah, don't lose hope.

For people who want to learn how to write code, as someone who's been coding for 10+ years my biggest piece of advice is this; Don't worry about what language you start with, just pick something that has a relatively simply syntax so you can focus on learning the CONCEPTS. Once you understand the concepts like data structures, loops, functions/methods, you can transfer that to any language.

In math = is equality, in programming = is assignment. This concept, once it was made known to me, made such a huge difference in my computer science journey. I'm still not a great programmer but defining basic stuff like this explicitly really helped me.

2 ways to decide what language to learn: 1. What are you most interested in - gaming, apps whatever and pick accordingly 2. What is well supported. Nothing worse than wanting help and not being able to find it.

There are only 3 things (6:08): 1. Reading from a variable 2. Writing to a variable 3. Conditional branching Everything else is syntactic sugar.

That was biggest problem for me when I started learning C++ in first year I remember being so mind blown by just hello world and not getting at all why it worked. I really didn't like taking it for granted. I think the problem for me was not grasping the concept of 'abstraction' - to me it was just some buzzword that I didn't really get. Wasn't until I knew about assembly , compilers and how basic processor architecture worked that it all started to click.

Coal miners are gonna love this video.

I just learned the basics of Javascript using the Headfirst book. It was enough to make my own card game. From reading the book to finishing the program took a month of full time commitment. I only recommend coding to people who are willing to problem solve often and can learn to sit in uncertainty for long periods of time. Those skills should be learned prior or along with coding.

X=3; Y=4; What is X? (Ans=3) What is Y? (Ans=4) Y=X; What is Y? (Ans=3) X=7 What is Y? (Ans=3 But would be 7 if x and y would be anchored with an ampersand) I Couldnt see this in the comments and the ans wasn't clear in the vid so I figured I'd type it up for others.

I learned HTML and CSS when I was about 10 or 11. I was fascinated with making websites so I grabbed a book from Chapters and just followed it. I read it in the bathroom, on road trips. I didn't get much time to practice but I knew the basics, however, because I didn't practice it I never really got good. Now, I use it almost daily for small tasks in my job. I understand it more and more and more, but I want to be better and get into Javascript as well. I am 32 now but I hate my marketing job and want to go into strict coding. I think I am going to start studying again.

Seeing Lex focus so hard on the question, expecting something really difficult, is gold.

Lex's statement about being ok in a state of confusion speaks to me so much! that is the vast majority of my 2 months or so of getting into cs

Morpheus started programming when he retired from Matrix

Lex please talk more about this void feeling, I bet we all can relate to that when it comes to programming

Teaching concepts from intro to programming to someone with no background is a real art. That in itself is a problem most of us have trouble solving.

I started learning programming some 10 years ago when I was already past 35. I never stopped. I’m now able to build complex softwares on my on. It feels very empowering to be able to transform my ideas into products as a solo coder, solo entrepreneur. Every long journey starts with the first step and it is never too late to start while there’s life. Just do it. By the way, I started with python and I will never regret doing so. My current project uses python, typescript (vue3) and 3 databases including one vector db. I love it and I will launch in only a few more months! Happy coding everyone!

What helped me learn the most was focusing on error handling in regards to UI/UX/QoL issues (started with Python after failing C++). Building a simple program and doing everything I could to break it, then creating fixes to handle said errors. I create data entry forms and do a lot of work in Excel as well, and I cannot stress how much learning basic programming helps in regards to building solutions in Excel workbooks. Things like interactive dashboards and the like need to be resilient when sharing with say your boss or other end users. It also has to make sense and be dependable. The thing is, "programming" has such a wide variety in application it's not just "I'm going to grow up and become a software developer". For me, it was "I'm going to learn data science, including standardization, enrichment, ETL, reconciliation, management/strategy, etc. etc. then apply to marketing automations for a dozen different customer journeys". In the end, learning to code is learning how to solve problems. The better you are at solving problems the more valuable you become in anything you do (especially in any tech field). Working in marketing, having these skills should be required nowadays and at the very least, gives one a huge edge over any non-tech counterparts you may be working with.

Charles Isbell walks a fine line between condescending and humble. idk thats just the vibe I get from listening to him speak

This episode is incredible. Love the third mind sanity check

This was so good, I don't even know how good it was.

C was my first language, and I use it from time to time for performance reasons. I like C for its simplicity when doing just raw number crunching. Input and string parsing is painful but the memory management aspect is the most painful of all.

I am starting to get into programming (One year in) I really wish there were more videos such as this. I have never heard about Charles, but he seems to understand the position that a complete beginner find themselves in, and that's what I would like to have from someone who is trying to teach programming.

Learning Python and SAS, and It's been tough to stick with it. This helped. I wish everyone luck on their journey of becoming better.

I know how to write Hello World!

I am completely in love with programming right now. I mean just the process of problem solving is so fun, and I actually hated it when I was attempting a CS degree. I have no idea what changed other than a maturing view of the world...Anyway all the love to Lex

Thought I had no idea what I was doin but I guess I have a pretty good understanding and should get back to learning

00:6:09 breaking it down to its primitives, very interesting and useful take on programming

This makes me feel better about learning C++. I'm on my midterm and I don't really know what's going on sometimes but I do understand the majority of what I'm seeing, I just need to learn how to build a program using my own notes and skills. As a visual learner, the text doesn't help me as much as watching youtube or googling others' blocks of code and seeing it in action. I don't know how I'll grade at the end of the semester but I enjoy programming and the high I get after my programming running as intended is new and awesome

Soooooo happy, as a beginner I understood all of that!!

It's interesting hearing these guys, I struggled a ton trying to understand recursion until my TA showed me how it worked in memory on the call stack. It seems dumb now but it's interesting how good teachers can really get you understanding concepts.

AHHAHA "Stare into the void with tears slowly rolling down your face". Lex is such a gem.

I think dig this more than JRE

When I first got into programming this talk (languages, etc) got me endlessly excited. Now syntax is hard to get excited about. It’s all the same basic formal structure. Now when I see experienced guys still get excited about this, it usually means they aren’t making much that is truly creative. Like an artist spending most his time admiring his paint brushes and testing them out for insignificant differences, but rarely actually painting.

I am only a couple months into my coding journey and the fact that I understood all of that really gives me hope. Maybe this is something I was supposed to do. I always thought I could never grasp these things but they actually came naturally to me. It's making this whole experience fun.

I remember in elementary school math doing word problems where the answer would involve something along the lines of Let x= ..... and maybe this helped to set me up for understanding the difference between equality and assignment

9:50 to 10:04 So much truth in this process you mentioned. Don't know how I wasn't subbed to you before but I'm rectifying that right now. Liked and shared also.

This man and Paul Graham have absolutely convinced me to learn lisp

"Python is basically lisp but with better syntax" "...blasphemy" xD

So important and true what lex said that when you are learning programming you have to be ok being confused for a while

Thankyou lex,this is very educational as a person who just started programming

I feel like flowcharts are the best way to introduce programming. You can clearly follow what the program does, without needing to learn almost any syntax, and it teaches you how to visualize programs in regular programming languages.

I was taught assembly and as soon as I started learned C++, I begun to flush out assembly altogether. At some point it becomes unproductive to think at such a low level of abstraction because what you wish to accomplish will significantly outweigh the capabilities of the language you're using.

I'm 45 years old. Starting small changed careers drifting away from nursing while swinging hard into in bits with front end and python. Web dev is so far my goal while starting out my first year in BS CS, Im feeling happy learning.

Thank you for these videos Lex

Im learning fullstack development right now in school, where u train for 1.5 years here in Sweden then u get released into the workforce as a dev. Honestly, it's fun and stimulating. But also very hard at times and frustrating... I remember being stuck in react for hours, but it ended up being like 4 lines of code that solved my issue. I assume this is what it's like for everyone. But I really like it so far. Not the front end side, I like SQL and c# way more so far, but front end is not that bad.

I learned Microchip assembly (MPASM) first. I still use it and love it.

As someone who's learned the very very very basics of python, the fact that I could understand and answer his question correctly makes me feel really great and motivated to keep going.

I started with C# and there were all of these best coding principles, but what kept me going was kind of being a 'rogue' programmer and doing it the way i wanted to. Now a days I can see that what I was doing was called 'procedural' programming style, and it was oop style that I was learning at the time.

I'm currently enrolled in an AI/ML Associates of science. We're having to learn python along with some other ML knowledge. It seems interesting and espite the steep learning curve I'm going to force myself to love it.

This cut gave me some sort of relieve... I'm new to programming, I'm studying JavaScript right now. I realized the thing I have the most difficult with is the abstractions! It screws my mind hard! But seems normal as my mind is not really used to logics behind it all... not sure if I was clear enough... anyone at the same boat?

I hate programming so much, but I have great respect for programmers who've built the technologies of today's modern world that we can't live without.

Awesome video. I was hesitant to click because I’m pretty confident in knowing the pathways to learning programming but I’m so glad I did anyway. Really cool insights from some great thinkers!

Staring into the void has been me and still is me. Very good point made by Lex

Theres usually a tradeoff between efficient to use and easy to learn. To make something easy to learn you shoehorn a lot of familiar concepts into the most intuitive form. To make something efficient to use you try to simplify the most frequent operations at the expense of intuition

“The very basics are often not made explicit.” Very very good insight there. This is true in teaching most complex topics, but seems to be especially present in teaching programming. I can’t count the times where I’d finally get a concept and think, “why the fuck do they teach it this way.” Or, “why don’t they explicitly point this out.” Or worse, to understand a concept, decide to dive deeper, listen to “teachers” and start thinking holy fu.. I don’t understand this at all, only to come around and realize my original understanding was correct but the way it’s taught is a convoluted mess.

Thank you. I needed to hear this

Love this as a newbie

Learn programming by thinking of a cool thing to build. You learn way faster, and it's fun as hell. I taught myself programming in 2019 initially because I wanted to make some tools and automate my work. It sort of just morphed from there. It doesn't really matter what language you start with, but I personally started with Python and then Nim. Ever since I tried Nim my fingers wouldn't let me type in any other language lol

Commenting so the KZfaq algorithm suggest more videos like this for me.

Great piece of advice

I put a lot of emphasis on building stuff using documentation over solving problems from the popular competitive programming websites and as a result failed at so many interviews.

This was helpful. I felt stuck at a beginner python level for a while. Not because the language is difficult to learn. But it's difficult to articulate my ideas as code.

God damn. I'm 6 weeks in and loving this clip. Failing miserably so far but this is encouraging to see we all go through the same pain.

Assembly is very great language. You get to understand the conversion process to raw machine code. In my study, it was a marvel

Shure SM7B is a dynamic microphone and should be directly in front the speaker's mouth, around 1 inch away from the lips. With this audio equipement you are able to achieve nearly radio sound quality. Enjoyed the video tho!

I agree with start simple, but also with an emphasis on starting with something simple that you find interesting. You will always find ways to make a simple idea more complex as you build it and think of more features to add, and that's the best way to learn. If you just build simple things for the sake of building them you will lose motivation

I remember these guys from Udacity's Reinforcement Learning course

9:00 Good point. In Pascal, it's ":=" specifically to address this. Xerox's Mesa programming language used left arrow ("←"), but only because their computer keyboards had an "←" key that was distinct from the left arrow key. I think that before the age of Java people avoided this pitfall by being required to study assembly language very early in the CS curriculum (in my experience, it was couse number two and was required to be taken before the department would allow you to major in the subject).

love it & i know nothing about it... thanks you tube & LEX

I think python is a great first choice. One of the problems with learning python on the internet is that a lot of people seem to use python without the OOP approach. I ended up learning without the OOP approach until I learned the advantages of OOP.

Abstraction is probably the most important yet understated concept in all of programming! I'm not a good programmer by any means and I haven't coded in over a year but when I was just starting out learning about classes and objects, I was so confused as to why they structured things that way. I also couldn't understand how software could talk with hardware and it made programming seem like a thought experiment. Once I understood the concept of abstraction, everything clicked and fell into place. Someone should really make a map of how everything in programming fits together in ascending abstraction, starting from transistor logic gates and storing charge in capacitors to act as memory, to ALUs, binary, all the way up to Python and JavaScript.

The debate on which is better is funny because he first starts out saying his is better, but when challenged on that decision he reverses it stating "SO you're going to say it's better than anything?" while just prior saying the same about his suggested.

Finding a project you're really interested in helps a lot, I wanted to build an ML model to predict the outcome of the Tour de France because I am interested in cycling and I taught myself how to Webscrape to get the data I wanted, and I learnt how to train a model and I ended up with a decent output which I am still working on. I even tried learning TensorFlow but that is still something I haven't fully got to grips with.

If you want to learn how to program, know a few of the basic concept like variables, loops and if statements, then trying to build some basic web UI functionality with Javascript is a great way to get started building something you can use and interact with. Great visual feedback. Build a dropdown menu in JS. Build a modal with JS.

From a software developer's perspective, I would suggest learning javascript because it broadens the scope of what you can develop. Websites, servers, native mobile applications just to name a few.

Start from the basics and practice every day. Just like everything else you need to build the muscle memory for what you're doing.

My humble opinion which was inspired by my friend a long time ago, is that because programming languages can only evolve in a backward compatible manner, the most efficient syntaxes tend to be the ones of the languages that are new. For example TypeScript , elm , rust. That is only 1 consideration for picking up a language. Adoption rate in a particular field could also be a big factor, if someone want's to develop software for others (mostly for corporations).

I wish I had Charles as my intro to C++, I was stuck on what syntax meant from the beginning and why it was required.

I started learning programming before I can read English properly. It took me 8 years to understand memory management and pointers.

Love this! Great job

I think I have a decent level at C, C# and Python, and if I had to chose a tool to learn programming, it would be Excel and VBA. It's like a language and a test bench at the same time and of course, it's one of the most usefull skills you can learn if you work in any kind of office.

print(“What’s up Lex!”)

I'm teaching high schoolers javascript. It's funny how you need to have coded for two years before you can appreciate how deep this convo about starting really is.

"I want to learn programming, what language should I start with?", the answer should almost always be Python. • Python is like trying to learn how to drive automatic. You'll learn how to drive. You'll learn it fast and you'll be able to do it well. • Java is learning to drive a stick shift. Java is the best balance of learning how to program as well as learning how programs work. • C++ is like trying to learn to drive by learning how to manufacture, assemble, and then use a car.

MOST BENEFICIAL, MOST NEEDED TIPS &ADVICE EVER FOUND ON KZfaq.

I’m learning to code right now and this was very insightful. I have a mathematical oriented brain and the syntax seems to be my biggest issue and now I know why.

I have been learning c # for the past few months. Its going alright I know more then when I Started.

great advice about getting into coding

I could listen to this guy talk for hours.

As an IT recruiter, I don’t pretend to know how to write code (though I’m trying to start learning the basics). But I see most of the Fortune 100 using or moving to Java. I’m surprised Java and JavaScript aren’t mentioned here. Would love thoughts from other developers though!

I didn't go to college for CS, I have an Industrial Engineering degree. I have been teaching myself to program over the last few years now. Was able to change my career to a software developer role last year. It takes time to learn but you can do it. Don't give up!

Everything you need to know is online or on KZfaq for free. C, Python, Docker, Linux, Excel and so on all you've got to do is take the time to learn it.

Start small is great advice, and you might be surprised just how small you've got to go to begin with

Choose a language that is in demand by industry. A good developer knows many languages to solve real world problems. Aim to be a developer i.e. ability to program in multiple languages.

Who knew that Marvelous Marvin Hagler knew so much about programming

I am learning Assembly and C++ and at this point I feel like these are the two languages I'll ever need...I personally see arguments made for other languages being easier to learn and etc but I've had no issue learning any concept so far in either Assembly or C++...it's definitely doable

Python reads and writes how you think. It is so fast and comfortable. For a new beginner: just write out all of the things you want a program to do. KEEP IT BASIC. Then slowly google how to write those statements out: If X is greater than Y, then Z is equal to X plus 2.