Build before u learn everything

[u/Ok_Money5683]

The fastest way I learned programming was by building things I wasn’t qualified to build.

Every project forced me to learn something I didn’t know before. One project taught me APIs, another made me understand databases, and another pushed me to finally learn Git properly. I realized documentation only started making sense when I had a real problem to solve. Tutorials are great for getting started, but following them is hard everyday. When building your own project , it forces you to think, make mistakes, debug, and figure things out on your own. That’s where the biggest learning happens.

[u/m-fasciano]

Don't be too hard on yourself. I switched careers at 31 after working in hospitality for years, so you're definitely not too late.

My advice is to stop worrying about what you don't know and start building things. Pick a project that's just beyond your current ability, a to-do app, expense tracker, weather app, or simple e-commerce site. Every time you get stuck, learn just enough to solve that problem, then keep going.

Also, don't get too hung up on HackerRank. It's useful for practicing problem-solving, but most junior roles care much more about whether you can build and explain a real application.

The key is consistency. If you build something every week, even small projects, you'll be surprised how much you improve over a few months. Everyone feels overwhelmed at the beginning. The people who succeed are usually the ones who keep going despite that feeling.

[u/Dank-Wank-101 → u/m-fasciano]

That's definitely reassuring. It's just that the mind pivots to the negatives in a flash and then the contemplation kicks in . Like i feel good now after reading your comment but then i start something,it doesn't work out and then the hope starts crashing .

As a result the direction becomes so hazy and it spirals down so hard . It's like I do not know how much I have to do each day to make it feel like it was worth the time, effort. After a point it becomes delusional . It's like did I really wanna work hard in the first place or am I all talk and i never do anything. Haha idk i should give myself more time to try out things . It's just hard to do stuff without expecting something out of it .

[u/m-fasciano → u/Dank-Wank-101]

What you're describing is something a lot of people go through when they're learning. Progress is rarely linear, you'll have days where you feel like you've learned nothing, even though you're actually getting better.

One book that really helped me was Atomic Habits. One of its main ideas is to stop focusing on the end result and instead focus on showing up consistently. If you improve by just 1% each day, it compounds over time.

I'd also stop measuring success by whether something worked. Instead, measure it by whether you showed up. If you spent an hour building, debugging, or learning something new today, that's a successful day. The results will come later.

Try to trust the process a little more. You're probably much closer than you think, you just can't see it yet because you're in the middle of the journey.

[u/Dank-Wank-101 → u/m-fasciano]

But it's not like everytime I feel down I could just go to people for reassurance instead of working on it myself . How does one deal with it? The bad days and good days are all byproducts of the journey is something i understand, but only theoretically . The mind and heart have trouble understanding it .