I didn’t always write. In fact, writing was one of the things that I never wanted to do. I decided that it was useless and in my youth I worked out all the ways that I would be successful without having to write anything myself. I had dictation software lined up. I would voice record things that I needed to remember, etc. I thought of myself as a fantastic speaker, and that writing and I just weren’t working out. However, slowly but surely as my education progressed, I began to realize that writing wasn’t all that bad and that my defiance of writing was most likely the result of a strong adolescent rebellion. The truth is– writing is fantastic. Here are three things that I have learned recently about writing:
- It unlocks your mind — hidden ideas, issues, and feelings all come out when you write freely.
- It brings relief — A study cited in this sweet book demonstrates that talking about your problems is as affective as talking about the weather, but writing about them is many more times affective.
- It’s easy! — You just do it and you get better.
Writing is a powerful tool. I’ve waited a long time to take advantage of its benefits. If you haven’t yet, you should start.
I’m a bit new to this whole blogging thing. I’m not saying that I haven’t read a ton of them– It’s just my first time really writing them. I don’t want to get stuck sounding pretentious and/or wasting your time. My goals in these posts are:
- I want to keep them succinct
- I want to keep them information-rich and pertinent
- I want to stay on topic
- I want you to find what you are looking for
- I want them to be useful
Although I do not need for people to find my writing useful, deep down there is satisfaction in knowing that people may be reading my posts and being inspired or being motivated by them. I love to be the seed for new ideas or new beginnings. I also love to help. I’m not sure of all of the topics that I’ll be covering, but I do know that I want to hold myself to a high standard for them. There’s plenty of stuff to read on the internet– and while I don’t think that I’m an all-knowing person or that I’ll be bringing a bunch of things that no-one has said or heard of before, I would like to reaffirm the things that I have acquired in my life that I think are worth more than just my time.
I was recently asked if I could help a student learn how to program in JavaScript and PHP. Here’s an excerpt from my response to the 9th grade student:
JavaScript is really not the best place to start learning how to program. I know it seems like a lot, but you will quickly understand that learning a language is not difficult. Learning how to program is really difficult.
I’ve been programming since seventh grade and I think the real reason why I’m still programming is because I learned in a fun non-business-y environment. I started with Logo and then a bit later I got into PHP. PHP is probably the best place two start of the two, but it’s really not a great solution because it’s much harder to set up (without paying for web hosting). What I would suggest is that you start with Python or Java. They are very different languages, but they both have really low barrier to entry (initial requirements of the person trying to learn). Python is cool because you really don’t need a lot to get it working. You can make programs in a console (text window) and you don’t have to worry about compiling because it’s a scripting language like javascript. Java on the other hand is going to have a lot more sweet examples because it’s a very widely used language for making games. It’s also what you program in to make android phone apps and google (android) tablet apps. But it is a bit harder because you have to learn about IDEs, in this case eclipse, which is a program that helps you make your program and fix bugs in it. It will also compile your code into a program that you can run.
I’m sure this all seems like a lot of information– it will be a bit overwhelming to learn all this stuff. Especially where you are right now in school.
I think your best bet is to explore a lot. Look at samples of other people’s code. See what really cool stuff that you can make and then look behind the scenes at what’s making it tick.
After further thought, you probably want to start with python to learn about the basic tools of programming (loops, conditionals, and other control flow, variables, etc.):
http://learnpythonthehardway.org/
It’s a great way to learn the basics. One of the hardest things is to set up your initial environment. But if you get through that you should be able to try stuff out without too much problem.
So, in summary, the most important things while learning are:
> Explore — don’t lose interest; make it useful, interesting, and exciting
> If you are just learning how to program because someone told you it’s a good idea and you don’t really agree, then it’s not going to work.
> Keep it easy – don’t burn yourself out; try not to get frustrated
> It’s easy to spend your time thinking about how complicated and difficult it is and how you’ll never get to what you want to accomplish
> If it’s really that frustrating and unhappy for you then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it! 
> As you learn more about programming you will be able to learn faster. For me, (after learning 40+ of them) learning a new programming language or environment is like eating a meal. You just know how to do it. You’ll get there faster than you can imagine.
“What’s going on with this site?” he said to his busy alter ego who never deals with personal web appearance beyond the occasional self search in google. He sat and pondered a while.
Lame soliloquy aside, it’s time to get this thing moving– I’ve recently decided that I’m going to strike out and start making some games / apps / whatever for whatever platform on my own. It promises to be exciting and full of learning, etc.
For those none of you currently subscribed to this empty feed: Look forward to great things appearing here in the near future.
-Sean
I’ve updated the look of my site. Not much content right now, but I hope to be adding in my project portfolio in the near future… but I probably won’t.
