# Tips for beginner programmers 🎯

 
📌 Be patient. you won’t learn quickly. it will take time.

📌 Listen to all the advice, but don’t follow all the advice

📌 Try to ignore too much enthusiasm (hype) and too much negativity as well (e.g. “PHP is shit” - not true)

📌 When doing tutorials, type the code. Don’t do copy/paste. Subtle but big difference. The code will be yours

📌 You learn by doing, not by watching other people do. Find a problem, even a simple one. Use code to create a solution. Create tons of little websites/apps.

📌 Start by understanding the problem. Once you understand the problem, coding is the easy part.

📌 Simple is better than overly complex. Don’t write code for a future that might never exist. Simple code working now is better than complex code that might work for a future scenario. Don’t be afraid that it looks too simple and not enough “engineered”

📌 Work on little projects that are interesting to you. Work on lots of projects. Quantity and spending tons of hours exposing yourself to different things is brute-forcing learning

📌 Find a way to stay consistent. For example every day at 6AM you spend 1 hour learning programming. Make it a habit.

📌 Don’t wait until you check all the boxes in a job ad to apply. You never know. Also, make tons of applications because you might not find the best company for you right at the first try.

📌 Skills apply across different programming languages

📌 You never finish learning. you have to always stay up to date to avoid becoming obsolete

📌 Learn from different sources

📌 Don’t focus too much on tools

📌 Don’t think you need a degree and that you won’t become a developer without a degree.

📌 Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process.

📌 It’s ok to use Google for every little problem you have, searching for a solution. Programmers share every problem and solution online, and if they didn’t, everyone would be challenged by the same issues. 

📌 Instead, they share the solutions so you can go on with your day

📌 Motivation and curiosity are the best tools in your arsenal

📌 Find a community. It’s more fun with peers.

📌 We have many different languages. Different people like different languages. Also, different 
languages let you do different things. If Python does not stick into your head, maybe JavaScript will. And vice-versa.

📌 When recreating projects you see on YouTube or in a course, always try to add your own unique spin and features to it. Make it your own. This can be a project you then use as portfolio and show to prospective employers.

📌 Practice using a rubber duck. Get a plastic duck or perhaps your cat or anything near your desk. 

📌 When you hit a problem, explain the problem to the duck. Many times the problem resolves itself.

📌 Walks or showers work wonders to fix problems. And sleep.

😃 Have fun!