Shoutout to the guy at the 2022 Maker Faire in Austin who asked me how I learned to code

I was just showing off a simple Arduino project, a little box that lit up when you clapped. This older guy came up, looked at my messy wiring, and asked me point blank, 'So, how'd you actually learn to do this?' I froze for a second because I'd just been copying tutorials online for years. That question made me stop and finally look for a real course to build a better base. Has anyone else had a simple question from a stranger totally change how you approach a hobby?

3 comments

3 Comments

miller.avery3mo ago

Tutorials are a totally valid way to learn, though.

kevin_schmidt973mo ago

Ever feel like you're just copying code without really getting it?

hayden58727d ago

My buddy Dave spent two years just copy-pasting React code from Stack Overflow until some random guy at a coffee shop asked him what a promise was in JavaScript. Dave couldn't explain it at all and felt like a total fraud, so he finally went through a proper course on async programming. @kevin_schmidt97 that feeling of not really getting it is real, but tutorials got Dave far enough to realize he needed to go deeper. Now he actually understands why his code works instead of just hoping it does.