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#CNC2021 "Start Coding" Pre-Mission Submission Thread

CodeNewbie Staff on April 15, 2021

After you've completed the reading, comment below with your reflections on coding anxiety, impostor's syndrome, and how they relate to your journey...
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Amaechi John • Edited

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.

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dng3220m4 profile image
Ethan

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!

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Chukwukagideon

Wow nice to find a fellow Nigerian here, my name is Gideon.
I just joined the community.

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Darryl Le Roux

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.

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Rina Florijn

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!

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Amaechi John

Sure it's possible

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jesscancode profile image
Jess

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.

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Sabine Emden (she/her)

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.

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Amaechi John

We will all scale through.

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Berkan A.

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

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darlisson profile image
drkcode

My journey is similar. I'm still tryin to be a developer. Good luck.

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hammad

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 :)

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Wulingoh

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.

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adammathewvaughn profile image
Adam • Edited

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

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Dtipton

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.

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eduenez33 profile image
Edwin Duenez

Good luck Daniel!

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Dawn Susee

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.

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ordinari_john profile image
Amaechi John

Beautiful

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eduenez33 profile image
Edwin Duenez

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.

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Gabriel Esteban Ruiz Meneses

Hello everyone! My name is Gabriel Ruiz and I am from Colombia. I am very passion about technology ,specially on the hardware and customer service side of it. This year I am planning to start on the software side of tech. I am surprise the main programming language the author use is Java. I was focusing more on Python, but I will now try out java and see how it goes. For now, I am open to new ideas or resources you guys can share. Feel free to connect on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/gabrieleruiz/, or shot me an email at gabrielestebanruiz21@gmail.com. Happy coding

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Diego Paula

Hi guys! My name is Diego, I'm a frustrated chemist from Brazil. I am very happy to embark on this journey with you! Feel free to talk to me if you need anything, two newbies think better than one.
About this reading, I identified myself completely, and put the tips into practice. I am very motivated.

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Rody Thauvin • Edited

Hello everyone !

My name is Rod, and I am currently living in the south of France, after having moved from Paris about 3 years ago.

Being 43 years old, the point in the article "Keep calm" about fearing to enter this domain at a later stage is a valid one, echoing to me.

But... It also kinda makes me feel better to see that quite a few people here are also in their mid-thirties to mid-forties... ;-)

In the article, they say that it is important to join a community. Well, asides from possible mutual help, I guess this is exactly what it's about : feeling better about overcoming our own weaknesses, finding emulation to progress, and knowing that we are not alone with our various fears and challenges.

My career has always more or less been related to IT, but not so much to myself programming. Though, in my twenties, while living in Ireland, I did work a bit as a freelance on PHP (v3 if I recall correctly), but I may have been an self-oversold fraud ;)

The other time when i felt the most as an imposter, was a few years back, when i was doing project management in a web-agency.
Though I loved this job, I was facing developers everyday, and they can sometimes be a bit of a difficult population to manage ;)
To my dismay, these were people with whom i felt I had not enough credibility nor legitimacy. Lacking technical coding skills, there were times when I could not understand all that they were on about.
I then figured out other project managers often feel the same way, but that was not enough to comfort me ;-)

Later on, after working in a startup accelerator, I joined-up a 3-months very intensive coding bootcamp (not online, physical attendance and full-time days).
Supposedly one of the world best coding bootcamps now, at the time, I was from the 2nd batch of students only and the program was still in its infancy, not as well defined and organized as it now is.

Even though I finished it, I consider myself as one of the "drop outs" from it.
At first, I had prior (but limited) coding knowledge compared to others, so things were easy to me, and I did not require many efforts from me.
My attendance dropped slightly, and upon returning after only 3 days leave, I hit a wall.
I had been greatly overtaken by other students of the class, even laggards.
My ego thus hurt, I lost all motivation.

It is a little frustrating to me to see how far most other students from this bootcamp have gone (senior developers, founders and heads of thriving startups, etc.) while I haven't.

Since then, I am still trying to get back to coding, from time to time, as I have many ideas that I would like to implement.
But on your own, it's not so easy to guide, discipline and structure yourself. It can even be quite discouraging.

My most fundamental problems are that I spread my grey matter onto too many resources to learn and too many personal projects at the same time.

Another big problem I have, is that on these side-projects, I anticipate way too much all the features and code problems to come. I end up conceptualizing these huge engines that will never see the day, crash and burn making too many knots with my brains, then get into analytic paralysis and give up for a while.

Because of this, my startup or side-projects never see past their early stages, - which I often keep re-doing, project after project (besides, at these early stages, this means pretty much always the same extended boilerplate). Time passes ; I forget how do things, until I decide to try again, and so on.
Another source of frustration.

I suppose I'm too eager to get to the heart of things, jumping straight to coding, not thinking and constraining the scope enough. It seems I forget all my project/product management teachings while doing so ;)
Generally, I give up too easily, too soon. Most likely because of all of the above reasons.

I had already subscribed to the CNC in 2018 but for lack of time, did not follow through after the first email.
The CNC2021 announcement email came at the right time this year. When I self-reflected on my short-comings, and have decided to do things differently.

I have lost a bit of confidence in being able to finish something. Yet this time, I am feeling determined to follow through to the end of the 5 weeks, not giving up before it.

My main aim is merely to keep having the discipline to be organized, structured, do things on time as emails drop, not procrastinate and not give up.
If I manage to finish the 5 weeks challenge, on time, I'll consider it as a win.

Currently my focus are (re-)learning Ruby (+Rails, apis, gems, etc.), vanilla Javascript & JQuery and CSS processors. Later on, I'd like to throw a glance at NodeJS, graph databases and React.

Indeed, it is important to connect and support each other. So I'll be happy to discuss any of these topics, exchange, share tips, and help you if I can - with my meager knowledge.
So feel free to follow me, here on CN ; I'll follow you back - as it seems mutual follow is required to converse.

More generally, i'm also interested in studying meta-innovation (how ideas come to be), history of innovation and sciences, psychology of beliefs and social psychology, philosophy, mixology (cocktails) and many more things. Always happy to talk about these topics too.

Finally, and most importantly, I wish good luck to all of you in this challenge ! :)
Take care.

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rgarcia12

Hello I´m Ricardo from Mexico. Im Agree with the 4 tips specially when you try to learn and have no idea where start and not follow a path to learn, instead trying in a messed way.

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Aaron Long

Hello Everyone! My name is Aaron. I've been studying code on and off for about 2 years now, still trying to wrap my head around concepts and break into the tech world. I participated in an online bootcamp in 2019 and learned a lot from that. I would like to work on holding myself more accountable, getting better at networking, and building a community of support in the tech space.

Excited to be here and paticipating in the challenge!

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Rina Florijn

Hello, I'm Rina from The Netherlands.
Imposter syndrome is something I first heard when I decided to return to coding. Oddly enough, I don't think I really suffer from it (yet?). I think it may have to do with being a little older (40 yo) - I had a to learn a lot in my (rather varied) working life so far and succeeded learning new skills then - why not this time?
My main struggle is that I was always told what and how to study, and when and now that I have to figure it out on my own I feel rather clueless and overwhelmed. This challenge couldn't have come at a better moment and I wish all participants a good time completing it!

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GecikaDM • Edited

Hello codeNewbieCommunity, my name Is Gecika, almost 42.A year and a half, I ve done a 5 months bootcamp which gave me a lot of stress and question to myself. I though for a while after that period that coding wasn't for me as I had some doubt about what I was able to do to produce to code to show and I had a kind of giant doubt and I lost confidence. It feels like I can't reach my goal, but I don't give up as I really like spending time learning new concepts, understand them. But It's like sometimes I am like in front of my screen and don't know where to start and how to start... It s very frustrated, sometimes i think that I can understand just tutorial and make basics. I don't give up, and I try, compare the period during my bootcamp, to take pleasure by coding, learning stuff and hopefully getting a front developper job this year!

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Javier

Hello Everyone! Reading "Keep Calm and Start Coding: How To Fight Coding Anxiety" it really hit hard. As a 33 year old I do feel sometimes time has run out but then I look around and read other peoples journey that they have share and get encourage. Also I do get overwhelm by all the resources out there to help us newbies on their coding journey. Not knowing where to start or what platform to use can get frustrating.

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dng3220m4 profile image
Ethan • Edited

Something I picked up from the Keep Calm article is that I've found that being a small part of an online community is helpful. Maybe there's a good discord for programmers/nascent developers?

As far as imposters syndrome - it's not something I've felt yet nor do I anticipate feeling that way. I'm learning to provide a great income for my family and I know I'm going to earn the ability to do business in this world.

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Michael

Hi all! My name is Michael. Reading Keep Calm and Start Coding reinforced a lot of what I have learned from listening to the CodeNewbie podcast already. I especially agree with the "Starting to late" point. I'm in my early 30s and sometimes feel like I'm starting to late.

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𝔏𝔦𝔠. 𝔏𝔲𝔫𝔞

Once again, I'm trying to reach my coding goals. Wish me luck, discipline and consistency!

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HazemSoliman96

Hello everyone. My name is Hazem Soliman. I agree with the point of being stressed knowing there's still so much to learn.

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Adri Kostecki

Hello Everyone

My name is Adri and I call the Netherlands home. It is great to read the thread and find people in my position. I am late to programming, in my 40's. I always wanted to learn programming, had a few attempts but found it too difficult with a 9-6. I have the opportunity and means to learn now, which I am very grateful for but I have a few things that scare me senseless: security is one, but mostly it is connecting with fellow developers, opening up and getting accustomed again to being a beginner...with all the facepalm moments that will give me. This is my biggest block, I have been going at it on my own, even after reading hundreds of articles that advise the opposite, so thank you all for your open comments, I realise I am in good company and look forward to the challenges. :-)

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Hrikraj Chakraborty

Hi, everyone! I'm Hrikraj, I'm from India. My problem with learning to code is, Laziness. I am interested in tech and coding. But oftentimes I couldn't stick to it. Also, I have this weird habit of going through tutorials after tutorials and practising very little on my own. It is probably because I am too shy to ask for help. So, this is the reason why I have joined this community. I hope to learn and interact with all you guys!
Thanks!

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Gaëlle Morin

Hi everyone!
This article is useful for me.
I get quite stressed when I code.
However, I have worked in the medical field and have encountered stressful situations that I have managed to cope with.
But I am afraid when I code.
I can't stay focused for more than 30 minutes. I'm afraid I'll fail and I won't be able to do it.
When I read the article, there is a lot of good advice.
I will learn JS without stressing about other languages.
I need to find a road map. I have the resources. I need to find a community.
But I'm not impressed by young developers. With time, everyone develops knowledge. Of course, the younger you start, the faster you become an expert. But we all have knowledge in areas that others don't have. You just have to share it with goodwill.

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sbstn98

Hey Guys,

i am Basti from Hamburg, Germany.

I want to change my Career in the direction of Coding, nowadays i work in a School with little children.

I was starting Coding with HTML in the early days, when i was like 10-15 years old, but then i stopped. I will try to follow along now.
I can code with HTML and CSS, my next step is to learn JavaScript.

I am excited to join the Community and i hope to learn a lot from all of you :)

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gsjca

Hi, I'm J.C., i'm from Dominican Republic, and i'm excited to begin my journey to become a frontend developer.

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Doina

Hi, guys! My name is Doina and I'm from Moldova. I'm so excited to be a member of this great community! In March, I began my journey in web development.
Here are my thoughts after reading the article.
To begin with, many of us as beginners try to learn so many things all at once. The result is a mess. This leads to discouragement, lack of confidence, the feeling of "you're not worth it", and also facing fear in all its forms when it comes to changing your career.
I believe all these states have their origin in our perception, all are a result of our limitations we have created for ourselves.
Most of all, I struggled with the fear that I might not have enough time to learn because I want to support my family financially. That created a lot of pressure for me.
The second thing was the actual process of learning. How was I supposed to keep up with it all?
The last thing was to join a community of developers. Here I am and I'm so thankful for that!
In my opinion, changing your mindset is crucial to making a positive difference in your life.
Happy coding to everyone!

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Nicki (she/her)

Hi everyone, I'm Nicki, originally from Germany, but live in Paris now.
I've signed up for this challenge two years ago already, but failed terribly :D
I guess partly because I left the community aspect aside, so it was easy to lose focus.
I'm 34 and looking for a career change like some of the others here as I can see. I'm not sure if coding will actually be it in the end, but keep coming back to it, so there must be a reason!?
I was glad that the first assignment was to read a post about coding anxiety, because it confirmed that I'm not alone with those feelings. I think my biggest fear is to put a lot of time and effort into this only to find out that I'm not good enough, that I can't keep up with the latest developments in coding (and therefore anything I learned will be useless or outdated after a few months if I don't put a lot of work into keeping myself up to date) and lastly, that actual coding that can earn you money (not the one you do for fun in your first couple of lessons online) might turn out to be less interesting than I hope it would...
I'm hoping this challenge can answer some of those questions/doubts for me :D

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On Corners Design

Looks like I am joining this thread late but am excited to start the "start coding" challage. The reading assignment had points that were important to me personally. First, you are never to old to learn to code. Let's just say I am older than 30 with over 25 years experience in my first career as an architect, that is the kind that designs building's. The second point I found critical was the importance of community. Codeing alone it is hard.

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Gracie Gregory (she/her)

You're not late! You're right on time! Welcome to the CodeNewbie Challenge!

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TayMar24

Hi everyone it's great to be here! My name is Taylor. I have learned the basics of HTML and CSS and I'm looking for a place to really get my feet wet in coding websites. I am currently taking a course to become a front-end developer. One point of the article that definitely struck me was the point about Imposter Syndrome being a reason for coding anxiety. Although I am very much new to the world of coding (and honestly I don't know if HTML and CSS count as programming languages) it has been fun yet challenging for me so far. The points about practice being important to the learning process is something I 100% agree with. I've been looking for places to practice my HTML and CSS and receive feedback from others. Throughout this journey, I just want to gain the confidence to start coding without being so afraid of messing up or that my code isn't exactly the same as someone else's.

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Novice • Edited

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing good! I feel glad to start learning on this platform.
As per the book, I totally agree with all the points the writer had mentioned. It is truly overwhelming to think about all the things we need to learn.
But the only thing that keeps us going is the motivation that we can at least start somewhere and then begin to move forward with the support and the tips that has been provided :) 💚

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Humaiz

Hello everyone I'm Humaira From Indiaa I'm super excited to start my coding journey ....
I have been struggling to for such a long time to get started because I'm really afraid of DS because I don't have a proper understanding about that .... Now I got some motivation and ready to start my journey

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Jess

Hi everyone! I'm Jess from South Africa. A social worker and project manager learning how to code! When you don't come from a tech or CS background you can definitely feel as if you don't belong. But my experience so far is that the coding space is really welcoming despite the perceived barriers to entry.

I don't worry too much about being out aged or skilled. I hoping that my real life problem solving skills and eagerness to learn will help me get over being pushed aside by a 14 year old AI prodigy. I'm excited to have found this community and ready to learn with all of you.

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Mouaad

Hi Guys, My name is Mouaad Hamza. I'm so delighted to be here with you.

Really, as someone who is interested in programming from middle-school time, but didn't get to it at the time because I thought I can't understand programming until I finish High school :/.
After I get my mistake, I tried to learn programming numerous times, but stops halfway, because I lost some interest in computer in general and got stuck in tutorial hell and couldn't get any ideas to build. So, I thank John for writing that great article. Imposter syndrome is really troublesome, but I'll try to overcome it.

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Junaid Hashmi

Hey everyone! I am Junaid, a Computer Science undergraduate and a beginner in the coding world from India.
I couldn't agree more with John about the 'imposter syndrome '. It's a hard feeling and it's also true that coding can be overwhelming sometimes. Firstly I was so confused since there are multiple niches in the Computer science domain like Web Dev, Machine Learning, Cyber Security etc. And it was hard to choose one so I learnt a little bit of one and got distracted and moved on to the second and ended up just touching the surfaces of each niche.
I procrastinated for about a year & learnt the importance of consistency the hard way.
Anyways, currently, I'm starting my web development journey and if you're a beginner like me, let's connect via Twitter. I look forward to beginning my journey with you all and hope you all reach your goals.

-Junaid

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sjunaidhashmi profile image
Junaid Hashmi • Edited

Hey everyone! I am Junaid, a Computer Science undergraduate and a beginner in the coding world from India.
I couldn't agree more with John about the 'imposter syndrome '. It's a hard feeling and it's also true that coding can be overwhelming sometimes. Firstly I was so confused since there are multiple niches in the Computer science domain like Web Dev, Machine Learning, Cyber Security etc. And it was hard to choose one so I learnt a little bit of one and got distracted and moved on to the second and ended up just touching the surfaces of each niche.
I procrastinated for about a year & learnt the importance of consistency the hard way.
Anyways, currently, I'm starting my web development journey and if you're a beginner like me, let's connect via Twitter. I look forward to beginning my journey with you all and hope you all reach your goals.

-Junaid

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cj

Hello I'm CJ, I'm a computer engineering student, I really get the part about the impostor's syndrome as my peers are already good in programming while I'm struggling specially with the syntax, I also got interested in programming only recently. That's why I hope that I'll learn a lot here. I aspire to be a data scientist soon. :)

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tdavis0831

Hi!! Let me tell you, I am in a great mood today because I am feeling CHARGED and ready to take on the world- this is coming from a woman who was so overwhelmed trying to learn list comprehension yesterday! I think it's really normal to feel like an imposter some days and others feel like you are going to change the world. Whenever I feel down, I try to take a break and walk away because nothing productive comes when I am not treating myself kindly.

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Rypop

Hello Computer Science world! An interest in switching careers to Healthcare Informatics has brought me here, with all of you. I’m truly beginning from ground zero here as I have no experience with computer science or programming. I loved the article, especially where the author suggested breaking up the chosen language into it’s core concepts and then breaking those down further into modules. The suggestion to add deadlines with generous expectations is a great tip to stay on track. I’m excited to dip my toe in and see where it goes!!

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NiiKoZA

Hi everyone, my name is Nico from South Africa. Excited to start learning Java. I have done quite a bit of courses on Swift but I gave up after a while. I am ready to start over learning Java and maybe get a job in this world. The fears in programming are real and I am still trying to get over them, hopefully one day! :D

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AndrewM

Hello World. My name is Andrew and I have been been learning code off and on for many many years. I have worked the same industry for 15 years and I am more stressed than ever. I am hoping to make a career change after learning a language that I have not decided on yet. I have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS but get discourage when I cannot replicate something for practice. I would like to be a front end developer.

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Stephen kihuni

Hi, my name is Stephen from Kenya. I started learning to code back in 2018, for the last 2 years I have been jumping from one language to another resulting in imposter syndrome, if I had come across an article like that, when I started this journey I think could be a bit far.

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Lazar Ristic

Hello world. Lazar here. I am from Serbia.
Working as a Bartender on Cruise ships.
When pandemic started couldn't work on cruise ship. Started with Python. There were not much internships or junior jobs. So I started HTML5, CSS3, about to start Frontend mentor challenges. Then going for JS and back to Django python.
Sometimes I think I am not for this and other people from internet gettignn5 much more grasps in shorter period of time. But also know that we should not compare. Reason is we all should take our own pace and not give up. We should be in code communities and help. Also we must ask for help. Best regards.

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koshirok096

Hello I’m Koshiro from Japan. I read the article and found that some points are so useful and informative :)

I often make simple website for clients or friends at local since 2017 (I have learned basic html, css and etc). To start learning new skills for new job possibilities, I decided to join this community. I actually never used or joined tech community like here before, so I’m excited to be here with you all :) Thanks!

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Leon Kompowski

Hello everyone! My name is Jorge. I'm from Colombia. I started to programming recently and I'm very exciting in learning more and more. I really agree with the reasons coders don’t feel at peace because I've already suffered them. But the text was great and encouraged me. Thanks!

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Eero Saarinen

Hello everyone! I'm Eero, and I'm Finland, almost 40 years of old (time really flies). I do admit having all of those insecurities about my skills at the moment, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting, if not totally, rid of them, at least having them on a leash. While at the same time learning one language to such an extent that it could land me a job as a software developer.

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Dave Reese • Edited

Greets all,

My name is Dave Reese.
I found the prep article to be informative, and I am going to look at the resources he gave later tonight, and see if I can apply some of them to my study plans.

I'm a an almost 55 years young non-traditional programming student.

I grew up in So. Calif. but I've been living in West Virginia where my father's family is from, for almost 24 years.

I've always loved learning, reading, etc,, and had I stayed on track when I was younger I'd like to think I might have been in a garage somewhere, involved in the early days of tech.

Unfortunately, I got off the education track in my late teens, and didn't get back to school until I was in my 30's.

At 31 in 1997, I transferred to WVSC (now WVSU) as a Communications student..and while managing the student radio station I started looking at streaming audio online as a way to get our little station out to more listeners. At the time I was barely proficient in I.T. related matters. I could email, search on alta vista, and do rudimentary word processing.

I had basically no life, so I devoted a massive amount of time to learning what I needed to know to stream audio. What was a server..a program, or a piece of hardware? (Of course, it turned out it was both)

I wore the guys down the hall in the Electronic Engineering Technology program out with stupid questions, searched extensively on the web, then went back with more questions, etc. and eventually got the station online with streaming audio of live programming as well as archived programming which had been recorded live.

I was using a 486pc to encode audio from the soundboard, I sent it across the hall via the lan to a PII pc in my bosses office and served it from a Xingmp3 server, captured that from the soundcard and simulcast it as Real Audio also. Eventually I moved everything to Shoutcasting in mp3.

I would sit in chat at a Yahoo group called Club Rasta (my show was Reggae formatted), and drop a link, which other chatters could click on, and listen live to songs I played which they requested.

As far as I know, I was the first person to do that type of interactive streaming.

Anyways, along the way I discovered a love for figuring out how to get systems to do my bidding, changed my major, first to E.E.T, and eventually attended Marshall University's community college (now MountWest Community and Technical college) as a transient student, obtaining my MCSE in Win2k in 2002, and then graduating with an A.A.S. in Information Technology.

I have worked in I.T. as a tech, an admin, Database Manager, and an independent I.T. consultant but as the administration side of networking became more centralized I kept looking at programming as an option.

At the heart of it programming was really the nuts and bolts of what I loved, which was still understanding how to make systems do something I wanted them to do

After several major life events, I now find myself once again with basically no life and having come full circle, I am hoping to devote myself to learning programming.

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I have always had a need to give the 'full picture' when describing things...and as you may have noticed, I still enjoy writing also.
(Which is why I started my return to education, originally...as a Communications major)

I have tried starting this path before, but got sidetracked by the aforementioned major life events. I'm hoping to make more progress this time, with the goal of getting a job coding asap.

I look forward to learning and progressing with all of you !

Sincerely,
Dave Reese
(a.k.a. Raggamufin)
wvc0d3guy@gmail.com

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Taryn B Miller

Hi all! My name is Taryn, and I'm based in Brookyn, NY. I'm tackling the 4th tip here by finding community as I continue my journey as a new developer!

I really appreciated the breakdown in this article regarding resources. I think that I was narrowly approaching "tutorial hell," as well as trying to read books from front to back! The amount of information regarding languages, frameworks, and libraries is so vast that it can feel overwhelming to me to know how to best structure my day and approach.

Having had my very first two bigger interviews, the anxiety persists! They were helpful to showcase my weaknesses, but my biggest fear has been not knowing if I'm ready/qualified to even receive some of these interviews! Hello imposter syndrome!

Overall I feel slightly better having read this article and am ready to continue my education, extend my network, and look forward to learning with, and from each other!

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Shivam Jha

Hello everyone,
My name is shivam. I am doing electrical engineering at NIT JAIPUR here in INDIA. i know front end web dev and now i am learning programming in c language as per my university course and also i am really excited to see this type of global community. I hope i find help and give help to some people. Thanks

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Chukwukagideon

Hello everyone!
I am grateful for the tips especially the part of breaking the concepts into smaller modules, cause sometimes I just feel overwhelmed with all the things I feel I should know and yeah there is the issue of seeing some of my friends who are doing good and have more knowledge about this whole coding stuff. It makes me feel like whoa I still have a long a way to go. But with the tips given I can at least take things one at a time.
I look forward to getting better.

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Maryori S.B.

Hi everyone! My name's Maryori (but call me Marge) and I'm so thrilled to start this challenge. I'm looking to make a career change to tech and one of the biggest struggles is about planning my education and collecting the right resources. I've been stuck in tutorial hell and wasn't able to build a proper 'curriculum' to follow through. So I hope to be able to finally have proper plan to learn and land my first job in tech.

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Cauchomono

Hi everyone, My name is Sebastián from Colombia. In the past, I had tried to learn to program, but I failed. The tips that John exposed, are so important and maybe if I had known it, now i'd a developer. However that doesn't matters now, and how now I know this tips I can retake the path I left. Even, I can give you a advice: if you overwhelming, Go slowly, step by step but constatly, that the sum of all these small steps will go you to the goal, like a gout that can fill a glass if nobody stop it.

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Jak7

I've been trying to teach myself to code since 2017. I want to learn but I lack discipline. Yet, another opportunity to learn. And at least I keep trying.

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Aditya Biradar • Edited

Hey, my name is Aditya as you might guess i am from India. I want to become a Data science and one of the tool i need to do my job in future is python, so I am super exited to learn python.

As the writer mentioned about the anxiety and the lack of motivation is for sure concerning but I think I can pull it off as there is big community out there who will surely help me.

If u are looking for a friend who has same goals as you :-
My twitter =AdityaBBiradar

CNC2021

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drkcode

Hello, my name is Darlisson, 28. My goal is be a javascript expert and an web developer. I got some basics of javascript, html and css. I'm from Brazil. (I'm learning english too, so I'm sorry if u dont understand well what I am saying. I will be better.).

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ミカ

Hi everyone!
My name is Micah and I'm from the Philippines. I started to discover the world of programming last year 2020 through khanacademy. For me the concepts and the idea that I was learning this was kind of overwhelming to grasp. I have doubted myself a lot, if coding was right for me. My progress was quite slow and was not consistent. My goal for this year is to be confident, be consistent and focus on learning python by the end of the year.

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WairuaTheImagoDei

Hello, my name is Josh from Kenya.
Admittedly, it's been an on and off programming journey due the points communicated in that article.
I am excited to start again, I'm not giving up!
I have learned that:

  1. most programmers are efficient in one (at most two) programming languages. So, I should focus on being proficient in one language.
  2. i should not rely on online courses to map out my learning path. So, i should research one and set adjustable deadlines while learning.
  3. i should collect the right resources for my learning (50% - practice-based platforms, 30% - Online courses, and 20% - books and tutorials)
  4. joining programming communities are essential. I cannot do this alone.
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Yoshi

Hi everyone,

I think coding anxiety is real. I've been self-studying for the past six months. I usually study after I get home from work. There is a lot to learn and I feel that anxious that I don't know enough to get involved in any coding projects. So, I try to look for more resources to supplement my learning. It just built more anxiety in me. Reading the article helped me to understand that there are many other developers out there who feel or felt the way I do about coding.

I agree that it's best not to keep my working hours within 40 hours per week. Being exhausted won't help and won't last very long either. I feel that this applies to self-studying as well.

Happy coding!

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Kimberly Marie

Hi! My name is Kimberly, but people call me Kim, for short. I'm 22 yrs old and I reside in the U.S. I've always been overly intelligent but wasn't given the right opportunities and resources to continue on with schooling after high school. I'm looking to make programming a skill/career path for myself. I'm learning at home. I'll be juggling learning and tending to my boyfriend, so I'm hoping this is something I can achieve.

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Matt C

Welcome!
The journey of 1000 miles starts with one footstep.

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Norbert Ogutu

Hello, My name is Norbert from Kenya. My initial goal is to be proficient in front end web development. From there, the possibilities are endless!