The Hard Truth About Learning to Code

You’ve been there, right?

It’s the crack of dawn, day ten of learning to code.

Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash

I open my laptop, hoping today is the day when everything clicks. I sip on my instant coffee (the best a broke college student like me can afford), feeling a mix of dread and excitement. I brace myself for that moment when the code compiles perfectly…

But then, error messages. Again.

I sigh and remind myself it’s only been a few days, but that tiny, critical voice in my head whispers, “Why are you even trying? This isn’t for you.” And, honestly, it has a point. Because right now, it feels like I’m on a never-ending loop of tutorials and practice exercises, none of which seem to make any sense.

I browse online forums, scrolling through endless posts filled with terms I don’t fully understand. Everywhere I look, there are “top 10 coding hacks,” “how to land a six-figure tech job,” or “learning JavaScript in 30 days.”

And then there’s me.

Last week, I spent hours trying to understand a single JavaScript concept. When I finally thought I had it, I took a practice test… and failed spectacularly. Meanwhile, a post titled “How I Learned Python in a Week and Got a Job at Google” is going viral.