I have tried for 20 years to get into coding, and among adhd and having 10 million other projects going on, just could never get it beyond absolute basics and knowing some differences between languages.
Now it seems every tutorial I see is really just clicking around in a gui. Very little actual typing of code, which is the part I actually find cool and interesting.
So my question is, since everyone on lemmy is a programmer, what do you guys actually do? Is it copying and pasting tons of code? Is it fixing small bugs in Java for a website like “the drop down field isn’t loading properly on this form”?
I just dont get what “a full stack developer sufficient in sql and python” actually does. Also i dont know if that sentence even made sense!
I’m by no means a veteran programmer, but I do study computer science and write automation scripts at work.
We get questions like this one every now and then, and usually the answers coming from experienced developers are: “You’re looking for an engaging project idea.” Not sure if this fits your case, but it seems like it to me.
Basically, pick your interest and then look for something related to it that you could write code for. You like video games? Try making games, cheats for games, mods or some other companion apps. If you’re struggling to find a suitable interest, you can always try writing scripts to automate your everyday computer tasks.
The answer to this question will vary a lot, depending on the specifics of the person’s job or interests. Though there is often a lot of copying and pasting involved.
I am a veteran programmer of >40 years and this is the right answer. Find a project that interests you, probably one tied to another of your hobbies, and just go at it. Don’t look to find if someone else has already done this project - they probably have and you’ll be discouraged from trying. Learn what you need as you need it; don’t try to “learn enough” to get started. It’s programming, you’ll never know enough. The best way to learn to program is to program.
Some personal examples: I write random generators for TTRPGs, I’m making a better UI for a cheap digital oscilloscope I bought for measuring audio equipment, I have a couple little wheeled robots I tinker on, I like to write MCP servers for LLM assistants, and I’ve got dozens of little projects or custom tools.
Go for it.