After you've completed the reading, comment below with your reflections on coding anxiety, impostor's syndrome, and how they relate to your journey. Feel free to introduce yourself and follow other participants you see below.
Congrats on challenging yourself to Start Coding! If you have any questions about the challenge overall, head to the Start Coding Help Thread. For any technical questions throughout the challenge (or in general) write a #help post and share with the community!
Top comments (72)
Hello everyone! My name is John from Nigeria. I'm super excited that I am learning on this platform.
I'll like to say that I totally agree with the points the writer had listed. Personally, I feel overwhelmed whenever I get to think of all the stuffs that's out there that I need to learn and how broad the programing path is.
But am very much happy that I can start somewhere with the tips that has been provided.
That's one of my issues is the vast amount of resources available. How do you choose one? I guess you just push off from where you are!
Wow nice to find a fellow Nigerian here, my name is Gideon.
I just joined the community.
Hey all.
As someone who is looking to change careers at almost 40 years of age, the anxiety is extremely weighty at this stage in your life. "Will someone hire me at my age?", "Will I be able to complete this?", "Will I be able to actually retrain my brain to think in a different way?" All of these are questions that I keep on asking myself - which eventually causes a mental roadblock when studying.
I plan on using these resources to try and drill it down, that with enough practice in the right environment, it can be possible.
Almost 40? Young pup! I'm turning 41 in 3 weeks time! ;-)
I share your worries though and am mighty happy that I am single and am only responsible for myself. I tend to remind myself that every little step you take is still a step further towards your goal than doing nothing at all. It also makes me feel less bad about myself on days where I don't code at all but am only reading articles or watching videos about coding.
Good luck with the challenge!
Sure it's possible
Jozi in the house. I feel you. The sheer breadth and depth of "programming" is kind of mind blowing! We can just go one day at a time and slowly start to see things click.
My goal to learn frontend web development and change my career in my mid-forties triggers feelings of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure in me. Brené Brown's work on vulnerability, most importantly her book Rising Strong, is invaluable for me for learning how to lean in to the discomfort. This deeply personal work is at least as important as building the necessary technical skills for me to reach my goal to be a frontend developer.
We will all scale through.
Hello everyone! My name is Berkan and I am from Macedonia. I'm a person that started learning how to code in 2018 but i stopped. Before that I started to learn how to code back in 2014 but i stopped again, now for the third time i have to keep on learning because i want to create a startup company that i am very excited about.
Any tips on how to keep going would be welcome.
Best,
Berkan
My journey is similar. I'm still tryin to be a developer. Good luck.
Hello everyone, I am Hammad from Pakistan and my goal is to master a programming language and increase my coding knowledge so that I don't constantly feel like an imposter while working in tech. And to shed this insecurity of 'inadequacy' while applying for more 'techy' and dev-oriented jobs. I don't know if that's the right motivation because I think this feeling of 'inadequacy' is meant to stay, as there will ALWAYS be so much more to learn when it comes to CS technologies. Anyway, gotta start learning at some point. May be my perspective will change along the process. Let's hope I stick to it this time haha :)
Hello there,
I am not sure to how to start. My goal is very simple - to be a confident software developer. The article mentioned about anxiety and insecurities and those feelings are real to me. Taking this challenge is a huge step for me. I hope by taking this step, my understanding and confident in software development will grow.
Hi, fellow coders! I couldn't agree more about the mental effects of 'imposter syndrome' and, at 36 years-old, I feel the creeping doubts of obsolescence. I am also guilty of spreading myself too thin with different languages and concepts and I hope to rectify this mistake with a new, more concentrated, and specific curriculum. I am further guilty of being a terrible personal-networker, and I'm even worse at asking for help. I look forward to changing these personality traits in myself and, in the spirit of connecting, I'd like to invite any/all of you to reach out to me via LinkedIn, GitHub, or Twitter. I look forward to beginning and completing this monumental journey with all of you, and wish you all the very best in this endeavor.
-Adam
Hello! My name Daniel from the US. I'm a senior in a Computer Science program and the imposter syndrome is real! I'm hoping to learn a bit more to put my mind at ease as I get ready to start looking for developer jobs at the end of this year.
Good luck Daniel!
Hi. My name is Dawn. I love to program. I will be using the coding challenge to review some of the languages I have not used on a while and to learn some new ones. I am excited to get started. I have emailed the link for the Challenge to my students. Hopefully I will see some familiar names over the summer.
Beautiful
Hey, y'all!
imposter syndrome hit me hard when I began attending a local "Learn to Code" meetup. Most of the people attending were either in boot camps or pursuing a CS degree in college. I was the only one going the self-taught route. Everyone seemed to understand all the information the instructors were presenting and I felt lost and out of place.
Although it was hard for me at first, the mentors there were super cool and helped me out a ton and I did begin to notice progress.