Great advice, but never forget the bigger picture. Most Musicians learn to play other peoples music so that one day they may play their own (however most end up playing covers on a Friday night or writing code first thing Monday morning).
I absolutely agree - having a target in mind is a great way to learn how to code... breaking down your project into component features & functions, and then working out how the logic of those components should work, then translating that into code. I started to learn python by trying to code a perfect maze algorithm, without referring to anyone else's code. I then looked at producing a game engine for 80's style text adventure games, which better helped me to understand text manipulation and classes & methods. I've also looked at replicating some board games which helped me to learn path finding techniques. And learning web scraping (using beautiful soup) and automated web navigation (selenium) has helped me to understand other aspects of coding too. Although I don't code for a living, I now look at how I can automate/simplify work tasks using python - which has also helped me to learn about Pandas too, amongst other things.
This is spot on. I spent so many hours studying the fundamentals, OOP concepts, data structures and then algorithms, all in C++, only to realize none of it was really sinking in until I started writing bash scripts to automate some file management. When I was able to relate to the problem and the solution, all of a sudden I understood how an array or a linked list can be helpful, because I could see how it was functioning to make my life easier. I assume the same goes for personal projects. However, the problem I've ran into when trying to integrate this approach into teaching myself programming is that I often don't know where to begin. Sometimes I start at point D, to later find out there was an easier starting point available: point A - which would then lead up to point D. Whereas with skateboarding or any other hobby, it was easy to determine a path for learning. When I wanted to learn how to kickflip, I knew that I needed to learn ollies, then kickflips, because one can't be done without the other. Programming is linear and technical in the same way, but identifying where to begin with your learning to reach a specific result is surprisingly challenging. I assume identifying these things comes with experience, but until you know how to find learning paths, you're left with seemingly unnecessary trial and error that can lead you to reinventing the wheel. Which can, admittedly, be a good learning experience, but frustrating none-the-less. Often times I chalk this up to being an unavoidable aspect of teaching yourself anything. I just realized that you described this exact thing right after I paused the video to comment, lol. I guess my question then, is: How does one find the most efficient learning path to develop a repertoir of necessities? I believe people attend college hoping to be given this, but I can say from experience, it's not the case. Even if I can find useful projects to relate to, I have no idea how to ensure they will help my repertoir grow in a good way.
Fully agree. To progress I need to do a bit of coding each day and I capture my learnings in library tutorials (jupyter lab notebooks). The breakthroughs come from stackoverflow, where about every hurdle I am wrestling with has both already been asked and answered by pro programmers. Currently working on modelling the UK transmission grid following the energy transition. This has introduced me to pandapower, geopandas, symbol, panel and many other great libraries, which allow me to simulate and understand the challenges of the UK electricity transmission grid in 2050.
After maybe 4 years of off&on failing to learn to code I think I finally realised that I can take it at my own pace and to just spend time thinking about it. Mid 20s and things have just clicked, super happy that I actually tried 😁
I wish I had something I want to achieve. Been thinking about it for months and still can not come up with an idea. Maybe that is why my JS training has been so painful and slow. I can't get any traction. Stuck in tutorial hell and the rate of my progress is just excruciatingly slow. I work all day in IT, come home, make supper, work out, and can barely keep my eyes open to study for an hour at the end of the night. Just venting, sorry. I am trying to figure out of coding is worth all the time and mental anguish when I came across your video. I don't really have any sort of point to make here....
To learn programming, you gotta be able to program. I am talking about setting up your enviroinment, working with cmd, knowing some basics. That's the initial threshold youu have to overcome.
just an observation, i find it interesting that a very large number of people in tech are also musicians. I wonder if there is an underlying linkage between the two?
Let me ask you, teacher, and sorry for my English. Ive been following you for some time and trying to exercice a lot on coding with Python. My problem is that: my memory is not great and my math skills are close to 0. But during this week, I was bored and I took a Python test at Linkedin. Well, I passed it, it was not difficult at all. But what does it mean? Should I invest more learning Python and Django or something like that to get a job? See, I m lost, I can do some code, I can make some little apps but I m light years from coding an AI, handling the maths to do data science and so. It's a bit chaotic situation. TIA.
Take a job. Even if its a small one, or like freelancer. Contribute to open source projects. If an experienced programmer is willing to teach, work with him/her. Teach someone who has much less experience than you.
Hey Giles, I really liked your advice about having a project that you're really excited about building in order to get the motivation when coding gets hard. However except from the default projects like a calculator, weather app etc, how do I come up with my own project idea that I can get really excited about
Depending on what you hope to do with coding, you can make a project that links up with that i.e. you want to design websites, design a website for yourself, or your band, or your dog, etc. If you want to create a game, build a small game you like - snake, tetris or pong, etc. You want to work on projects given from a work environment, give yourself that project - a new budget calculator for work projects is necessary, create one, a new database needs to be created to capture clients data for your Getflix company, and you have been tasked with building the database. Etc. There are many different ways you can think about it. I hope this helps. Have a great day.
Alexander Eisen asked, _"...how do I come up with my own project idea that I can get really excited about"_ At the beginning of what became a 19-year career as a software developer, I worked in the basement of a small savings & loan. Each morning, an elderly man working as a janitor would come by to empty my trash bins and to engage in a bit of friendly chatter. Once a week or so, he would express his fascination with the work I was doing, and with computers in general. When this conversation snippet arose, he inevitably got around to asking me the same question each time: 'I'm thinking of getting a PC. What can I use it for?' Although I'd vary my replies out of politeness, the core of them focused on a single premise: a PC is just a tool, like a hammer. It's fine to ask what a hammer can do, but one doesn't 'think about getting a hammer' without having in mind some need for what it can do. And therein lay his fundamental challenge: he didn't *FIRST* have something in mind to do, and *THEN* set about seeking tools that would help him achieve his goal. Instead, he was *first* focused on getting a tool, and *then* looking for things to do with it. In some ways, this is akin to the ages-old error of trying to put the cart before the horse, if you will. I shared all that in order to give you a context for my reply to your question. How do you come up with a project idea that you can get really excited about? Simple answer: you don't. Sorry to have to say it so bluntly. If you don't already have in mind something that excites you, then 'buying a tool' as a first-step likely won't help you to come up with something that excites you. As with my janitor friend from so long ago, you're trying to put the cart before the horse. Over my career as a developer, many of my co-workers were getting into programming for the glamor and mystique of the field, but despite many of them being quite smart, they didn't have anything in mind that served to motivate them. And, as was described in the video, without motivation to keep one going when things get difficult -- as they almost certainly will -- the exercise serves more as confirmation that one is 'knocking on the wrong door'. So, in the interest of helping you clarify what you're really all about, may I ask: what currently excites you? Are you involved in art of some kind? Do you enjoy maths? Do you look forward each day to athletic activity? Or, are you feeling unstoppable perhaps when you're traveling? These are just a few questions that may, if given the attention they deserve, help you to discover that you're already 'motivated' by some things. And, if you were less inclined to 'learn to code' just to 'be a coder', you might actually find more satisfaction in doing what already, organically excites you. It's just a thought, but perhaps one that you'll find more helpful than you may prefer :) And, just to be clear, I don't mean to discourage you from coding if that's really what drives you. However, in light of all I've shared here, it seems to me that if programming really drove you, you likely wouldn't have to ask how to come up with a project idea that you can get really excited about. Whatever you decide, I wish you good success. Cheers!
You need to have a problem that you want to solve, and then try to implement a solution in code. Those are the best projects. The problem is finding a project that is going to challenge you in the right way. If you keep solving isomorphic problems (the solutions are the same, but the problem inititally appears different) you spend time reviewing what you already know. Finding things to challenge yourself, without discouraging you from learning, is probably the hardest part of self-teaching - teachers get paid money to develop this, and schools facilitate them: curriculum.
@@RichardHarlos This is poignant. Even though I studied computer science, I often find myself thinking and learning more about psychology and philosophy than I do programming. I knew I was creatively analytical, so CS seemed the closest thing to philosophy that could provide a decent living, and had low overhead for personal projects I was motivated by. However, there's not much in CS to do with philosophy beyond logic, lol. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I dislike the sterile nature of CS, and you're echoing that here - programming is just a tool. Which, ultimately got me thinking that the most optimal path to a career is to take what you're good at, then find a way to utilize it so you can apply to something you care about. Being creatively analytical, I could be good at development if I spent time actually doing it, but it might not be what I care about.
this exactly how i learnt SQL i did projects for data analysis but for some reason i have ni idea where to start with python 3, in sql i figured out that theres an order of operations select, from, where, orderby but with python i cant find that structure
I want to create my own personal cortana from halo or maybe FOCUS from Horizon zero dawn😁😁 That's my motivation completed introductory to python still going from there wish me luck 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
Love the analogy. What it miss if how to practice the right path. I’ve been to a lot udemy tutorials, but my problem is melomirzation. I am using notion to write down some essential code with my explanation) but I don’t find the way to practice with a kind of active recall. I am curious if you have an idea about: 1 the right path for web development by level as you said 2 the way to memorize it
You can use flash cards. Or, do it for long enough, and you'll eventually get it memorized. I use Windows and I code for a living, but I also use OneNote to store snippets. And, that's how I think of code as many, many, many snippets to solve certain problems.
Thanks for the video. I have Computer Science background, and had learned Python and R, but my biggest dilemma right now is what projects to build for my machine learning portfolio, in order for me to break through to be a machine learning engineer. Could you advise any good websites that can inspire me with ideas? Thanks.
Do you have a few programming projects in mind, or where to look for them? I would like to do some to further my skills. But so far it's much easier for me to find piano song, there're lots of resources for that.
Can you please make a separate Video on a Project Like PDF to Audio Converter in Django python Step By Step, in Which We Can also Convert the Audio Language of the Converted File.
Sir,Let's say I devote 3hrs per day every weeekday learning to code with this your Method,how many years would it take me to become a badass programmer? I have interest in Database/python
The feeling when rubbing your whole screen apart before realising that spot is on your wall and not on my computer screen. But anyways great vid tho thanks.
Analogies only go so far, some brilliant musicians play by ear, only very small percentage of people have the brains or stomach for mind numbing chicken scratch called code, let’s learn to count in hex for the fun of it etc, sorry to criticize but you have just raised my mental high bar even higher
It definitely is. The thing I always say to my clients is that it's absolutely possible to do anything they want to do. The question is: do they have the resources to throw at it? In your case, you've established what you want the end goal to be, and you've defined the human resource - 1. Now how much time are you willing to invest from that 1 human and over what time frame? That will tell you if it's possible for that solo developer to reach the end state you want.
Great advice, but never forget the bigger picture. Most Musicians learn to play other peoples music so that one day they may play their own (however most end up playing covers on a Friday night or writing code first thing Monday morning).
I absolutely agree - having a target in mind is a great way to learn how to code... breaking down your project into component features & functions, and then working out how the logic of those components should work, then translating that into code.
I started to learn python by trying to code a perfect maze algorithm, without referring to anyone else's code.
I then looked at producing a game engine for 80's style text adventure games, which better helped me to understand text manipulation and classes & methods.
I've also looked at replicating some board games which helped me to learn path finding techniques.
And learning web scraping (using beautiful soup) and automated web navigation (selenium) has helped me to understand other aspects of coding too.
Although I don't code for a living, I now look at how I can automate/simplify work tasks using python - which has also helped me to learn about Pandas too, amongst other things.
what ur age ?
@@powerball200 ??
Pandas are pretty cool tbh
This is spot on. I spent so many hours studying the fundamentals, OOP concepts, data structures and then algorithms, all in C++, only to realize none of it was really sinking in until I started writing bash scripts to automate some file management. When I was able to relate to the problem and the solution, all of a sudden I understood how an array or a linked list can be helpful, because I could see how it was functioning to make my life easier. I assume the same goes for personal projects.
However, the problem I've ran into when trying to integrate this approach into teaching myself programming is that I often don't know where to begin. Sometimes I start at point D, to later find out there was an easier starting point available: point A - which would then lead up to point D. Whereas with skateboarding or any other hobby, it was easy to determine a path for learning. When I wanted to learn how to kickflip, I knew that I needed to learn ollies, then kickflips, because one can't be done without the other. Programming is linear and technical in the same way, but identifying where to begin with your learning to reach a specific result is surprisingly challenging. I assume identifying these things comes with experience, but until you know how to find learning paths, you're left with seemingly unnecessary trial and error that can lead you to reinventing the wheel. Which can, admittedly, be a good learning experience, but frustrating none-the-less. Often times I chalk this up to being an unavoidable aspect of teaching yourself anything.
I just realized that you described this exact thing right after I paused the video to comment, lol. I guess my question then, is: How does one find the most efficient learning path to develop a repertoir of necessities? I believe people attend college hoping to be given this, but I can say from experience, it's not the case. Even if I can find useful projects to relate to, I have no idea how to ensure they will help my repertoir grow in a good way.
Holy shit
How did you get on..any new insights?
Fully agree. To progress I need to do a bit of coding each day and I capture my learnings in library tutorials (jupyter lab notebooks). The breakthroughs come from stackoverflow, where about every hurdle I am wrestling with has both already been asked and answered by pro programmers. Currently working on modelling the UK transmission grid following the energy transition. This has introduced me to pandapower, geopandas, symbol, panel and many other great libraries, which allow me to simulate and understand the challenges of the UK electricity transmission grid in 2050.
After maybe 4 years of off&on failing to learn to code I think I finally realised that I can take it at my own pace and to just spend time thinking about it.
Mid 20s and things have just clicked, super happy that I actually tried 😁
I'm a music teacher and I'm beginning to learn coding. This is an eye-opening approach. Thank you!
How's your journey?
I wish I had something I want to achieve. Been thinking about it for months and still can not come up with an idea. Maybe that is why my JS training has been so painful and slow. I can't get any traction. Stuck in tutorial hell and the rate of my progress is just excruciatingly slow. I work all day in IT, come home, make supper, work out, and can barely keep my eyes open to study for an hour at the end of the night. Just venting, sorry. I am trying to figure out of coding is worth all the time and mental anguish when I came across your video. I don't really have any sort of point to make here....
To learn programming, you gotta be able to program. I am talking about setting up your enviroinment, working with cmd, knowing some basics. That's the initial threshold youu have to overcome.
I appreciate how simple and effective your tutorials are.
What are your favorite books and courses at the intermediate and advanced stage mastery of Python?
Wasn't expecting you to play Toccata in D there, but it was welcome.
Great, new angle to look at effectively learning programming.
Omg that makes so much sense , I feel so stupid right now. Thank you :D
We have a concert pianist in the coding community!
Lol
just an observation, i find it interesting that a very large number of people in tech are also musicians. I wonder if there is an underlying linkage between the two?
@@zoltannemeth8864 It's because learning an instrument requires you to be kind of OCD and it's a trait a lot of people in IT have.😉
programming and bodybuilding, there is almost no space for theory in those endevours...
Not true
Lifting weights with bad nutrition only bites you in the ass.
Dear Giles I still not able to find one line of code you write in your videos
Let me ask you, teacher, and sorry for my English. Ive been following you for some time and trying to exercice a lot on coding with Python. My problem is that: my memory is not great and my math skills are close to 0. But during this week, I was bored and I took a Python test at Linkedin. Well, I passed it, it was not difficult at all. But what does it mean? Should I invest more learning Python and Django or something like that to get a job? See, I m lost, I can do some code, I can make some little apps but I m light years from coding an AI, handling the maths to do data science and so. It's a bit chaotic situation. TIA.
Take a job. Even if its a small one, or like freelancer. Contribute to open source projects. If an experienced programmer is willing to teach, work with him/her. Teach someone who has much less experience than you.
@@siddharthraychaudhuri7250 Thank you. I m doing those Linkedln tests, I m going well. I will take your advise.
Thanks for this!
But the problems I have are when I learn JS I feel like I know everything but when I try to start writing my own code I feel like I know nothing
What is your opinion on guided projects? And how to get best use out of them ?
Hey Giles, I really liked your advice about having a project that you're really excited about building in order to get the motivation when coding gets hard. However except from the default projects like a calculator, weather app etc, how do I come up with my own project idea that I can get really excited about
Depending on what you hope to do with coding, you can make a project that links up with that i.e. you want to design websites, design a website for yourself, or your band, or your dog, etc. If you want to create a game, build a small game you like - snake, tetris or pong, etc. You want to work on projects given from a work environment, give yourself that project - a new budget calculator for work projects is necessary, create one, a new database needs to be created to capture clients data for your Getflix company, and you have been tasked with building the database. Etc. There are many different ways you can think about it.
I hope this helps. Have a great day.
Alexander Eisen asked, _"...how do I come up with my own project idea that I can get really excited about"_
At the beginning of what became a 19-year career as a software developer, I worked in the basement of a small savings & loan. Each morning, an elderly man working as a janitor would come by to empty my trash bins and to engage in a bit of friendly chatter. Once a week or so, he would express his fascination with the work I was doing, and with computers in general. When this conversation snippet arose, he inevitably got around to asking me the same question each time: 'I'm thinking of getting a PC. What can I use it for?'
Although I'd vary my replies out of politeness, the core of them focused on a single premise: a PC is just a tool, like a hammer. It's fine to ask what a hammer can do, but one doesn't 'think about getting a hammer' without having in mind some need for what it can do.
And therein lay his fundamental challenge: he didn't *FIRST* have something in mind to do, and *THEN* set about seeking tools that would help him achieve his goal. Instead, he was *first* focused on getting a tool, and *then* looking for things to do with it. In some ways, this is akin to the ages-old error of trying to put the cart before the horse, if you will.
I shared all that in order to give you a context for my reply to your question. How do you come up with a project idea that you can get really excited about? Simple answer: you don't.
Sorry to have to say it so bluntly. If you don't already have in mind something that excites you, then 'buying a tool' as a first-step likely won't help you to come up with something that excites you. As with my janitor friend from so long ago, you're trying to put the cart before the horse. Over my career as a developer, many of my co-workers were getting into programming for the glamor and mystique of the field, but despite many of them being quite smart, they didn't have anything in mind that served to motivate them. And, as was described in the video, without motivation to keep one going when things get difficult -- as they almost certainly will -- the exercise serves more as confirmation that one is 'knocking on the wrong door'.
So, in the interest of helping you clarify what you're really all about, may I ask: what currently excites you? Are you involved in art of some kind? Do you enjoy maths? Do you look forward each day to athletic activity? Or, are you feeling unstoppable perhaps when you're traveling? These are just a few questions that may, if given the attention they deserve, help you to discover that you're already 'motivated' by some things. And, if you were less inclined to 'learn to code' just to 'be a coder', you might actually find more satisfaction in doing what already, organically excites you. It's just a thought, but perhaps one that you'll find more helpful than you may prefer :)
And, just to be clear, I don't mean to discourage you from coding if that's really what drives you. However, in light of all I've shared here, it seems to me that if programming really drove you, you likely wouldn't have to ask how to come up with a project idea that you can get really excited about. Whatever you decide, I wish you good success. Cheers!
You need to have a problem that you want to solve, and then try to implement a solution in code. Those are the best projects. The problem is finding a project that is going to challenge you in the right way. If you keep solving isomorphic problems (the solutions are the same, but the problem inititally appears different) you spend time reviewing what you already know. Finding things to challenge yourself, without discouraging you from learning, is probably the hardest part of self-teaching - teachers get paid money to develop this, and schools facilitate them: curriculum.
@@RichardHarlos This is poignant. Even though I studied computer science, I often find myself thinking and learning more about psychology and philosophy than I do programming. I knew I was creatively analytical, so CS seemed the closest thing to philosophy that could provide a decent living, and had low overhead for personal projects I was motivated by. However, there's not much in CS to do with philosophy beyond logic, lol. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I dislike the sterile nature of CS, and you're echoing that here - programming is just a tool. Which, ultimately got me thinking that the most optimal path to a career is to take what you're good at, then find a way to utilize it so you can apply to something you care about. Being creatively analytical, I could be good at development if I spent time actually doing it, but it might not be what I care about.
@@JacquesduPlessis11 Thanks very much that's really useful
I thought you were going to have a go at Rach #3
this exactly how i learnt SQL i did projects for data analysis but for some reason i have ni idea where to start with python 3, in sql i figured out that theres an order of operations select, from, where, orderby but with python i cant find that structure
I want to create my own personal cortana from halo or maybe FOCUS from Horizon zero dawn😁😁
That's my motivation completed introductory to python still going from there wish me luck 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
Thanks for the amazing video,, could you pls tell us the best training for ML?
Love the analogy. What it miss if how to practice the right path. I’ve been to a lot udemy tutorials, but my problem is melomirzation. I am using notion to write down some essential code with my explanation) but I don’t find the way to practice with a kind of active recall. I am curious if you have an idea about:
1 the right path for web development by level as you said
2 the way to memorize it
You can use flash cards. Or, do it for long enough, and you'll eventually get it memorized. I use Windows and I code for a living, but I also use OneNote to store snippets. And, that's how I think of code as many, many, many snippets to solve certain problems.
Hmmn...not sure how I feel about this video, or more specifically, the mask/musical intro. What's the word I'm looking for? 🤔 Violated, perhaps? 😂
What's the name of the piece being played at 2:30?
The Roland keys are a lot of fun
Is there a way you can you us your programming process?
Call for conferences and they'll have a topic to discuss.
Very practical 👍:-) All you have to do now is to ship me books 😊🤗
do i copy it until i know it and then try it myself or is that cheating?
Thanks for the video. I have Computer Science background, and had learned Python and R, but my biggest dilemma right now is what projects to build for my machine learning portfolio, in order for me to break through to be a machine learning engineer. Could you advise any good websites that can inspire me with ideas? Thanks.
Damn the Phantom of the Python and making complete sense .
omg! would love to pay you instead of a like! Thanks man! for making me realize how it actually works!
Do you have a few programming projects in mind, or where to look for them? I would like to do some to further my skills. But so far it's much easier for me to find piano song, there're lots of resources for that.
ua-cam.com/video/EY6FFBDp2zw/v-deo.html
@@gilesmcmullenlet's be freinds what's your contact
You should write a book on analogies
Can you please make a separate Video on a Project Like PDF to Audio Converter in Django python Step By Step, in Which We Can also Convert the Audio Language of the Converted File.
usually I dont take advice from a python coder, but your advice is actually good
So, you have to practice your programming 40 hours a day
Thank you very much for this video, really
Sir,Let's say I devote 3hrs per day every weeekday learning to code with this your Method,how many years would it take me to become a badass programmer?
I have interest in Database/python
Id like to make a game where Brendan shaub is in tent city fighting for his life
The feeling when rubbing your whole screen apart before realising that spot is on your wall and not on my computer screen. But anyways great vid tho thanks.
you know what I am going to listen to right after this video? Bach, got this earworm now
TLDR; practice with a personal and fun project in mind.
Combining JS with JS Bach. 👍
you are a classic musician too right
I think he just made this video to show off his fantastic musical talent 😂
Does the same apply for learning data science?
Good vid but the music parts were really annoying
Excellent tips!
Analogies only go so far, some brilliant musicians play by ear, only very small percentage of people have the brains or stomach for mind numbing chicken scratch called code, let’s learn to count in hex for the fun of it etc, sorry to criticize but you have just raised my mental high bar even higher
Hello sir can you tell me that is it possible to develop jarvis like advance Ai using python as a solo developer.
It definitely is. The thing I always say to my clients is that it's absolutely possible to do anything they want to do. The question is: do they have the resources to throw at it? In your case, you've established what you want the end goal to be, and you've defined the human resource - 1. Now how much time are you willing to invest from that 1 human and over what time frame? That will tell you if it's possible for that solo developer to reach the end state you want.
I don’t understand- is he musician or programmer?))
do you listen to playboy carti.?
Zoom zoom
Long story short from what this guy is saying, time and practice.
this video is a gem
Thanks
fewer chewturials and more time at the keyboard it is.
Paying someone on fiver to get your project done - lol
Agree
you changed my perspective man!
Cool Video :)
I love it
Nice
When learning code is better to get someone that will teach you code instead of playing on a damn piano‼️👎
piano flex
My motivation is a billion dollars 😅