Software Development or Programming has Never been easy but...

 

I suck at programming, but I love it. What should I do?

Back in 2013 when I first started learning how to code at University, I had a very hard time understanding how to implement loops.

Whenever my classmates finished all their loop exercises in record time while I struggled with the very first problem, I thought to myself - man, I suck at programming!

At the end of the semester, with enough practice, implementing loops came as second nature to me.

About seven months ago, I had to develop a full-fledged Android app for an unit I was doing. The app was meant to consume an API which I had to create myself, call a bunch of public APIs as well, do a lot of math with the information and then plot the results.

I couldn’t for the life of me understand how AsyncTasks worked for making calls to the API. Moreover, I went completely blank while implementing fragments.

Basically, I sucked! Real bad!

In the end, though, I had managed to get a working app up and running:

To be honest, I still sucked to some extent (my code wasn’t the most elegant, and the user interface was mediocre at best), but I sucked a tad less than where I was at the beginning of the semester.

A few months ago, I had to code an iOS app for this other unit I am doing.

As expected, I sucked like there’s no tomorrow:

Wtf is an optional? Why can’t I force unwrap one? Why does Swift have to be so weird with null values and not handle them like regular programming languages do?!

How does delegation work again? Can’t I do anything simpler to pass information from one view to the next? Ugh!

After a few weeks of effort, I started to suck a bit less and had something to show, at least:

I could go on about the countless times I felt that I sucked at programming. But I know that’s not a bad thing. I keep sucking because I know I’m constantly exposing myself to new things and that can be pretty daunting. For instance, I’ll have to work with R in a few days for some exploratory data analysis tasks and I know I’ll suck in the beginning!

If you love coding like you say you do, you’ll begin to embrace the confusion and disappointments. It’s all part of the process.

I think Jake from Adventure Time sums it up nicely:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Documentation is Very vital before you develop any system or app

Image
Technical documentation in software engineering is the umbrella term that encompasses all written documents and materials dealing with software product development. All software development products, whether created by a small team or a large corporation, require some related documentation. And different types of documents are created through the whole  software development lifecycle  (SDLC). Documentation exists to explain product functionality, unify project-related information, and allow for discussing all significant questions arising between stakeholders and developers. Project documentation by stages and purpose On top of that, documentation errors can set gaps between the visions of stakeholders and engineers and, as a result, a proposed solution won’t meet stakeholders expectations. Consequently, managers should pay a lot of attention to documentation quality. Agile and waterfall approaches The documentation types that the team produces and its scope depending...
Read more

Steps followed when creating a new software

Image
  7 Steps of effective software product development life cycle #Product label Tech-intensive lifestyle induces software to be an integral part of the everyday routine in the 21st century. Today, it is hardly possible to imagine any activity not powered by some kind of computer-related processes. When digging deeper, software product development is a highly organized process with precise procedures and strictly defined steps known as Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Whenever you need a sophisticated system, software suite or end-user web or mobile app your outstanding project delivery, besides all the other important factors, largely depends on a set of processes practiced by the development team. The Software Development Life Cycle as a collection of rules and practices helps to connect tech, non-tech team members and project stakeholders to transform your exceptional idea into a unique software product or solution. It structures the work of the development teams enabling th...
Read more

Everything you need to know when developing an on demand service app

Image
On Demand Services App Remember Richie Rich, the animated show that we used to watch? It had an Robot maid named Irona. We all wished we had someone like her who could complete all our household chores in seconds. Well, that dream still seems to be far from us for at least a century; however, there is a substitute to it which is as effective as Irona.  on-demand apps  for Home Services is that substitute. We all know how on-demand apps have disrupted majority of traditional industries. From the way we travel, eat, shop, and even date, all has undergone a tremendous change. So, why not our household chores and errands? After all we all need an Irona in our lives who can complete our household chores and run our errands in a jiffy. Before we understand the nitty gritty of  on-demand home services apps , let us start from the basic at what exact services that it provides. As the name suggests it serves as a platform where you can hire professionals for all you...
Read more