Learning

The Partridge Family were neither partridges nor a family. Discuss.
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ceofil
Posts: 39
Joined: April 13th, 2017, 8:35 pm

Learning

Post by ceofil » June 15th, 2017, 6:45 pm

How do you guys learn stuff? I mean how do you know what to learn? Like what topics to learn and in what order and what to use the things learned for. Or is it more like
need to do something --> learn how to do that by learning new shit?
How do you deal with burnouts?
I realized that the hard part of programming is learning new stuff and coming up with project ideas. Working on something is fun. It feels good and sort of rewarding to have a goal work to accomplish it and build shit up. But I feel like crap without a goal. Is it a common thing for programmers?

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Zedtho
Posts: 189
Joined: February 14th, 2017, 7:32 pm

Re: Learning

Post by Zedtho » June 15th, 2017, 7:15 pm

Yeah, I was gone for 3 months because I didn't have goals, but I'm back now. Goals are pretty important to keep when programming. If you get burnouts, well I haven't had those yet, luckily. You should watch Chili's tutorial on C++ if you want a general guide through C++, I like to watch those and make games on my own separately from that, and just do research until I find the tools I might need to make that game.


I am rather new to programming though, and you asked for real programmers, so take this with a grain of salt.

albinopapa
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Joined: February 28th, 2013, 3:23 am
Location: Oklahoma, United States

Re: Learning

Post by albinopapa » June 16th, 2017, 5:42 am

What you described is how I learned C++ and the rest. I watched chili videos, then when I came across a problem I needed to figure out, I looked it up on the webs. If I still didn't get it, I'd look on YouTube that usually did the trick. So for me it's learn as I go.

Burnouts happen frequently for me when a project has become particularly difficult or monotonous. I haven't gotten tired of coding, just the projects I work on for more than a couple of weeks. To remedy this, since I don't have a job programming, I just switch projects until I feel the urge to work on the previous ones again.
If you think paging some data from disk into RAM is slow, try paging it into a simian cerebrum over a pair of optical nerves. - gameprogrammingpatterns.com

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chili
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Re: Learning

Post by chili » June 16th, 2017, 2:21 pm

In general, I learn things as I need them. The intrinsic motivation of actually needing to use something is great. Now in the very beginning, it might not be that easy, you need some baseline level of proficiency in the language before you can even start working on projects like that. To get some direction in that situation, following a program like a tutorial series, a book, or a course can be helpful.

Some skills aren't really required but you might want to pick them up anyways. Like you can get by with just new/delete and naked pointers, but smart pointers are fucking awesome and you should use them instead. The language is constantly evolving, so it can be good to look into stuff like that yourself by reading blog posts, watching videos etc. These sorts of things you won't learn just because you have some project, you gotta make an effort to go out of your way.

You definitely needs goals and projects. Just learning with no aim or purpose doesn't make much sense to me. I feel like you should have some long-term goal, some ambition project you want to undertake someday, and then one or more short term projects that you currently work on as you build up your skills to one day reach your longterm goal.
Chili

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Battlefrog
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Joined: March 31st, 2015, 10:10 pm
Location: Florida, United States of America

Re: Learning

Post by Battlefrog » June 18th, 2017, 5:18 pm

ceofil wrote:How do you deal with burnouts?
The best way is to imagine yourself 2 or 3 years down the line not doing the thing you wanted because you didn't feel like it.

You feel like shit, so you keep working at it.
Broc W.

Sole Member of Sledgehog Software, trademark and LLC status pending.

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