5 Reasons Why You're NOT Becoming a Programmer

There are five things that cause a lot of aspiring self-taught developers to fail. In today's video I wanted to share with you these common issues that people have when they are teaching themselves to become a programmer.
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[@AndySterkowitz]

Are you guilty of any of these behaviors? Did the video help clarify anything for you?

[@JASDKA1]

Yup! Totally.

[@fateslayer47]

Yeah me too. I've been struggling with these 5 problems and procrastinating on projects but thanks to you, I've realized my mistakes and I'm gonna start building projects.

[@farooqwahab8056]

Yes. Thanks for the practical advice.

[@icreid1323]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@davidlee-pc2zk]

yes, im bouncing around . thank you very much!

[@AethernaLuxen]

You know, every single person who clicked this video is already or becoming a programmer

[@funkcuntize]

So true, wrote my first program in 1982 on a 16k machine and here I am

[@noire.blackheart]

Half these comments : I wrote hello world therefore I am now a programmer.

[@yosha2467]

@@noire.blackheart OP said "becoming".

[@ukaszbownik1077]

Not really, I am a programmer, a freelance developer and I am watching this video as writing this comm lol

[@funkcuntize]

@@beedoox5613 Its weird how tribal many computer users from that era still are about their old computers. As a Sinclair user I suffered Commodore 64 envy for a long time but would never admit it.

[@NickSkye]

Was a Programmer, Watched this, Got fired the next day...

[@citrusciderr]

Please say you’re joking lmfao

[@elijah1110]

Aleeki N. Its obviously a joke

[@citrusciderr]

Elijah UsedSplash lol sure, you never know though 🤣

[@guulish]

Was Nicks employer, watched this, fired him the next day.

[@aerahtv0000]

@@guulish lmao

[@kirkb2665]

I'll condense this entire video in one phrase: "Practice makes perfect."

[@Code_Machine]

Thanks

[@MrJhalexis]

I've got one better: 'Practice makes programming.'

[@Daniel_WR_Hart]

I've heard "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice does", but then you need to be careful not to be a perfectionist

[@oldAccount7247]

perfect practice makes perfect

[@Daniel_WR_Hart]

@@amsamam1606 I don't even remember what I meant when I said that, but making a conscious effort to improve when you practice definitely helps more than just going through the motions

[@WarrenLeggatt]

I have done 40 years at the code face now. Golden rule early on while playing with your own projects.. Move fast, break stuff, make mistakes and don't be afraid to box yourself into a bad design corner. Then step back, think about what went wrong and refactor the crap out of it to improve. Rinse and repeat. The reality is you need to screw up to understand what bad code looks and feels like so you can spot it in the future. If you skip this you will end up a copy/paste from stack over flow programmer.... so not a programmer :) Most work is in the imperative world and that is where the jobs are BUT learn a functional language to add to your tool box, such as Haskel or F#. You will learn a whole new way of thinking and how to approach problems from different directions.

[@igorbeierbach7349]

Thank you Mr. Leggatt. That is very inspiring to me.

[@lennysmileyface]

Yep sometimes I have to flip flop between different design patterns before I figure out the one I like the best.

[@yt-dman]

"5 reasons you won't become a programmer" me: *was programming a few minutes earlier*

[@lurchusa1299]

Same here. Programming full stack for 20+ years, yet KZbin thinks I won't be a programmer. WTF!

[@redbepis4600]

im only 13 and almost finished my first unity game in c# and then I find this in my recomended

[@crayolamanic1381]

I dare you to watch the vid lol

[@clementsiow176]

I am 11 and I already can do some complex shit and KZbin doesn't think I can be a programmer?!

[@yt-dman]

@@clementsiow176 bruh im 12 and probably know less complex shit than you but ok

[@michaelsvoboda1024]

Despite the slightly clickbait-y title, this was quite constructive.

[@Retamor2]

Developer for 8 years and agree completely

[@aldemar9416]

Valdemar i have never seen someone with almost the same name as mine!!

[@AbdulMananCh]

aldemar What a coincidence lmaooo

[@equation1321]

I think not

[@williamgrace9631]

For some of y'all: #1 reason -- you can't become something you already are.

[@nedaltrebor8553]

Found the debugger

[@SimbaLion]

i wonder if anyone here doesnt fit that category. o/

[@EthannCraftt]

DARN IT!

[@crispeeweevile9631]

we come here to find out how we can improve

[@jthomasaurus]

Your videos are always my favorites of my subscriptions, simply just for how relatable your content and story are...but this one really resonated with me. I do suffer from a few of these delays, especially the perfectionism and fear, due to my fear of “if it’s not perfect, NO ONE will ever hire me!” A lot of it has to do with being self-taught in my mid-thirties and knowing I’ll be competing with the fresh young college grads when I start putting out resumes. Thanks for this super helpful video Andy, and keep them coming! I love getting notifications that you’ve uploaded a new one!

[@momotrees111]

You know what your advantage is though? Over a decade worth of acquired soft-skills that young fresh grads won't have. And that's just naming one advantage. I think if you and everyone here perseveres, we'll all get there.

[@AndySterkowitz]

Thanks for the kind words Jason! We all suffer from a lot of the things I mentioned. Just baby step your way through the process.

[@jthomasaurus]

Momo thanks for that perspective. It’s true.

[@Andrew-bf2oj]

Im starting my first job as a software engineer out of college (computer science) and this is great advice. I think one of the things that nailed the interview for me was showing a bunch of demo apps on my iPhone to the interviewers. Also, apply and try to take as many interviews as you can. My first interview was horrible but as I got more comfortable with the process, the better I got. Also, apply even if you don't check all the boxes for qualifications. As long as some of the qualifications are met they'll be willing to still hire you and train you if you prove to be productive yourself.

[@ayelaii]

I've only recently discovered your channel, but I love how clear and concise you are. You provide really valuable information and insight. I'm about two weeks into my programming journey (self-teaching) and am excited to keep learning! The first two weeks have already been so fulfilling. Thank you for the insight and inspiration.

[@dantedycer]

Very insightful video, been struggling with some of these for a while. Thank you!

[@JASDKA1]

Thanks for keeping it so rich. No changing the topic,no going astray etc.Staying diligent and consistent.

[@olganova3058]

I personally have been facing tons of fears and therefore, resistance in progressing with coding. Takes a lot of energy to push anything that doesn't seem to be perfect (clean scopes, comments, documentations). Eventually, you just need to put your foot in the door, no matter how much you've crapped your pants out of fear. Andy, awesome content! Thank you for your updates!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Fear is constant in everything. I find that just baby-stepping and just tip-toe-ing outside my comfort zone will gradually get me beyond my fear. And glad you enjoyed! 😊

[@aakashvishwasjadhav7513]

You inspired to me start my programming dream again ..Thanks Brother

[@gabe9767]

So helpful, thanks for this. I’ve been having convos with cohorts about these points and it’s nice to know that we aren’t too far off. :)

[@nikolakrstevski3339]

Some people are just born to be good teachers. You are one of those people Andy. Thank you so much for great advice's!

[@TheCrusaderRabbits]

Thank you for telling us that we have to persist in the boredom. So true. I am very, very bored, but I push on.

[@AndySterkowitz]

Everything becomes boring after you do it over and over again 😊

[@XavierSmithXcellence]

This was quite helpful. I'm about a month into learning front-end development, and I've certainly been struggling with the perfectionism bug. Glad to see I'm not alone!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Glad to help Xavier!

[@rashmor1]

So, how did it go?

[@michaelroennfeldt4875]

Fantastic advice. Thank you

[@rathelmmc3194]

This could be retitled to “Why you won’t succeed”. All these rules apply to any skill set.

[@gilgene5803]

Andy well said. I myself do have some of those tendencies. I'm working on myself.

[@raincamphike]

Words to live by! Thanks for always making a great video !

[@AndySterkowitz]

Glad to help. 😊

[@whowiseedet]

This is a tremendously helpful video. Thanks Andy!

[@JakeFosmire]

You're the best Andy! Your videos are always so helpful!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Cheers Jake!

[@jeesambo]

So motivating, we really appreciate. I will start coding actively.

[@Richard-yt4rk]

This is really relevant information and actually explains real problems that budding programmers face when going through the self-taught route. Thank you for putting this out, more blessings to you.

[@robertzeurunkl8401]

"Everything has to be perfect" HAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAAAAA! 30+ year career programmer here. I start every project thinking, THIS time, it's gonna be perfect. It never is. And, usually, because technology is always changing, and you're always learning. Each project, you do things a little bit differently based upon what you learned in the last one, and since the last one. And as a consequence, you usually end up making small (and sometimes big) errors. But hey, that's why code reviews are so important. ;-) Programming isn't something you learn - like, "Well, that's that. I learned it". It's a lifelong discipline, and you are always learning, always changing, always doing things differently.

[@itfitness5791]

But there is some point in a programming career, where the code gets decently clean and you get a feel for what's clean and what isn't, after that turning point it becomes much more fun and satisfying imo

[@robertzeurunkl8401]

@@itfitness5791 Yep. My biggest challenges are 1) resource organisation (where do I want to put everything in the directory structure), and 2) naming conventions.

[@itfitness5791]

@@robertzeurunkl8401 For me it's mostly SOLID Design Principles by Dr Bob, using the right Software design patterns and not reinventing the wheel (using libs, frameworks and public github code bases whenever possible)

[@robertzeurunkl8401]

@@itfitness5791 Heh. I have an almost opposite approach. Preferring to limit dependencies, I tend to work strictly in the native languages, as much as possible, and only reach out to libraries and APIs when necessary. So, for instance, I no longer use jQuery for much at all other than it's AJAX interfaces, and that only because I have not taken the time to write my own XMLHttpRequest handlers yet. On the other hand, on the other side of those AJAX calls, I work primarily in .NET Generic Handlers, but once there, I do take advantage of the vast .NET Framework. :-)

[@dulangikanchana8237]

well different is fun, not changing then life gets boring, cheers, for motivation

[@KidaleSmith]

You really just set me back on track thank you SO MUCH !!!

[@Felixxxxxxxxx]

The part about persisting when things are boring is great, I was considering changing language for that very specific reason. Thanks for your insight!

[@ronaldgonzalez7834]

I started snapping my fingers when you said things get complicated and don't let them overwhelm you. I Love it

[@mattgraves3709]

I agree. really like your soft-skills focused approach on becoming a developer. The exact content of study will change, implementation best practices will change etc. The value of learning what soft skills to have and to cultivate them is a big leg up. I don't know how many times I change my study content but the algorithms to success, once determined should be made habit.

[@alexramcharit3779]

This was motivating thank you 🙏🏼

[@jackieandkayleecrafts]

Thanks so much just started two weeks ago, I get so happy after being stuck then figuring out the problem.. so much fun things I’m learning.

[@MrCostas32]

Excellent advice Andy..thanks.

[@darthstructure7370]

Dude you are so dead on!!! Thx for the advice. I will apply it to secure my first developer job.

[@michaeltruss5833]

Andy: Thanks so much for posting this video. I'm trying right now to be a front end developer and have had a couple of interviews last week. Im building a music app right now. Thanks for being inspirational and being a good mentor. God bless.

[@mcknznelson]

Thank you again for your video, very encouraging!

[@hometeam2526]

I second that!

[@anyak303]

Thank you for this, it is really affirming and encouraging really to keep going!

[@chan7191]

very inspired! thank you andy :)

[@AndySterkowitz]

Thanks!

[@elpalako]

Andy, thank you for this movie! You are great!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Cheers!

[@ianchristensen9146]

#5 really resonated with me. Great videos! Keep it up!

[@alkemyst3318]

What an amazing video very informative and unbiased. Definitely gained a new subscriber!

[@diggysimmons4132]

Thanks Andy. This is what I needed at the moment.

[@AndySterkowitz]

Cheers Diggy!

[@anny23108]

Unlike many on you tube, you really seem passionate and honest, thank you!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Thanks Annie!

[@fateslayer47]

This video is pure platinum grade. I am guilty of all 5 of these mistakes. I have decided to start building projects from now on and learn new concepts along the way. Thank you so much Andy. I hope you get 10 million subscribers.

[@AndySterkowitz]

Thanks Ajaz!

[@joice2871]

How’s it been bro

[@dontbeafraid5313]

Thanks for the advice. I am guilty of some of you say. And now I will change it

[@dipankararora2633]

Excellent advice. Much needed. Subscribed.

[@morganwalstrom9900]

Awesome content bro!!!!!!

[@FrostSpike]

All good stuff. I believe that as developer skills become more commonplace the differentiator (apart from perhaps the developer who's also graphic artist) is going to be the domain specific skills that are required to understand the product that you're building. In the "old days" there were programmer/analysts who not only were excellent developers but also domain subject matter experts - perhaps they used to be practitioners on the business side but preferred the more technical aspects. There seems to have been a period of stratification where the business analysts have been separate to the developers (who "just" code to the specifications) but, as budgets shrink the ability to recombine those roles is going to be more important too when seeking employment.

[@imaxjunior6531]

Good information. Sometimes when wanting to make a project that is large, it's good to make small projects that will be used in the big project to learn just that functionality and learn the syntax around it. It's a good strategy because if one is encountering alot of errors or incorrect code execution it's good to be able to just focus and wrap your brain around just that module / project until you've learned and corrected the errors, then on to the next one. Once you've completed the various small projects then it's time to incorporate them into the one big project that was first thought of. Coding can be both an amazing wonder and it's share of frustration but with perseverance it pays off in the end.

[@alexlytle089]

Thank you Andy! I'm guilty of bouncing around! I need to focus on one program language and really master the fundamentals

[@LinkingYellow]

Don't focus on mastering fundamentals either. Those will develop as you develop projects and make mistakes. All you need to know to do anything in any language is the purpose of functions, loops, variables, branch statements(if/else), classes, and maybe pointers if are using a language that takes advantage of those. You can Google how to perform any kind of input and output you need, and learn about libraries as you need them.

[@anasolak670]

Thank you for your advice! It mean a lot!

[@jaydenmoon1165]

Thank you for this - I really enjoyed the video and it is helping me a lot

[@jasonwhittaker3940]

Excellent video and excellent help.

[@Pemdas7]

Really good video. Respect what you are doing.

[@AndySterkowitz]

Thanks Jarrod!

[@Madcowe]

Oh hey, as someone who's self studying programming again I'm kind of glad I don't think I'm guilty of most of these, now I just gotta get better :3

[@tomclumsy6168]

hard work plus being passionate in what your doing! thats the key! im a beginner and everything you said was right. thank you for telling us the truth. your video inspire me more to continue my goals in becoming a good programmer. 👍

[@pathfinder9363]

HI Andy, Great useful video! It made me more clear thanks thanks thanks.

[@DgreatChannel]

thanks for this.. really need this motivation right now👌🏻

[@SowaScape_Premier_Landscapes]

great video man I like the analogies to help outsiders relate

[@tudort8871]

thank you brother! even though i am not a programmer i want to say thank you for sharing this with us.those principles can apply every where not only in programming

[@muslimahadeolaakinyemi1459]

what really got me is the bounce around thing...because I am a typical bounce around...just literarily wanna jump to the next exciting thing. am definitely subscribing

[@lastfirst4093]

Great video!

[@adrianthomas4163]

Nice tips. Subscribed.

[@JASDKA1]

That's your second video that I'll need to watch again. Even if I've stopped.

[@saksham9170]

It's soo helpful, thanks!

[@AndySterkowitz]

Glad to help!

[@iNovotek]

Masterpiece!! Thanks

[@SheshadriMadhu]

Thanks Andy that helped me a lot :)

[@GregoryMcCarthy123]

Hey thanks for your nice video! I’m a self taught programmer and you are right! Thank you

[@LoganVega]

Great Job Andy!

[@blva444]

I made sure that I had a passion for being a pythonista prior to picking up my first book, "Head First Python." I'm even redoing my social media sites as if someone who was hiring me is looking at it; everything programming. I've decided my focus to be python and django, that way I don't go crazy looking at python + ruby + flask +sanic. Plus python has two little pythons as their logo, obviously the right choice :) !! I plan on combining this with my security+ certification so I am also designing applications with security and scalability in mind :) Self-taught all the way!! Great video to make sure we don't slip into any ruts or negative thinking.

[@KingNat.]

You're doing good, keep at it. As long as you have a goal in mind and go at it bit by bit you will get there. Best of luck

[@coolmanu55]

Beauty can't hav brains Hun

[@muhammadrahimi1547]

@Abdullah Habib wrong, there are some females who can understand the logic behind programming They're just hard to find

[@muhammadrahimi1547]

Python is not a programming language btw

[@BossAlley]

@Abdullah Habib not true at all. That's just your assumptions. If you're good at what you do, females being in any fields that are male dominant shouldn't bother you. You just generalized "all women" by saying females shouldn't be in this field. SMH.

[@xxmarykillschildrenxx7936]

thank you so much! this helped me alot :)

[@estebangutierrez8647]

Hey Andy, was trying to schedule the call but can’t change the date. Thanks for the video!!!

[@dipper0yawn]

Thank you - this is very very helpful. All of those reasons are interconnected and in my opinion are due to the way we are taught to approach learning - it starts at school and doesn't stop there. Just accept that your code will never be perfect, try things out, play with code, and you'll get stuck much less often.

[@shawnbellazan7498]

Thanks bro for the advice

[@MrVelyx]

@Andy Sterkowitz I actually only learned from books during my biology Bachelor and had a real hard time in the lab. So Computer science is like all other Sciences in that regard. p.s. all what you said seemed to address me directly, and you are so Right. Thanks for your words man.

[@user-og2sk5be7i]

Thank you very much that was really helpful ❤❤

[@JASDKA1]

Hi and thanks. I've given up but still watching your videos. Edit: I relate soooooo much. Not to mention the frustration that comes with learning on your own.

[@jasonhumphrey2464]

What was the final stray that made you give up?

[@JASDKA1]

@@jasonhumphrey2464 I guess the fact that nothing was working.

[@MrAngryLuke]

In regards to perfectionism, also beware feature creep. Have a good idea of the scope or functionality of the project before beginning and don't keep adding things as you develop.

[@muhammadzamzam9915]

Thanks so much!

[@kristynceballos670]

Andy, I love your honesty and approach. I've been watching a lot of your videos over the last couple of days while I try to decide if this is something I'm going to do. I noticed a lot of the videos I've seen are a year or so old. Do you still have the mentorship program/group and call invitation? I opened up the call link but only saw one date available in August. Thank you for all these informative videos. They're great!

[@tarishitiwari3424]

You point out the actual drawbacks.... Thank you for this video... This video is everyone need to watch... It gives me energy to do more stuffs I'll suggest to my frnds to watch this video... Thank you for such a video!_😊😊😊💫

[@tomumpire]

Very good advice. I have a CS degree and still find what you said is the exact same approach I take to learn new technologies. It's kind of akin to figuring out how a remote works. You don't start by reading the user's manual, you press the buttons to see what each one does. This is called inverted learning pedagogy. When learning something new by myself, I look at the docs, or github, try to find examples of working code, paste it without understanding, follow instructions like in a tutorial. I do not read "explanations" in the first step. I just try to make it work and run the code. Only when a simple example is working do I try to go back to understand what I pasted, and why it worked. Also reading the documentation now makes more sense. After that I type in the code again(that's important) to make it even more clearer. I have 3 years experience developing professionally this way. I don not understand low level details of many things but I can produce something that works quickly even if i don't know the language really well. You can always go back and read the stuff that's bothering you anyway(which you should) This strategy will take time to develop but Andy is spot on on getting to make something while you are learning.

[@tomumpire]

Also regarding going out of comfort zone is something that resonates with me a lot. The amount of things you know/will-know will be a tiny miniscule to the vast knowledge present out there. You can't identify yourself with knowledge you currently have. You have to constantly remind yourself that you don't know anything. You have to be comfortable with "I do not know". It's not a sign of weakness. Only when you identify that "I do not know" will there be a longing to know more. You will identify with your ignorance. And that's a good thing. The day you get comfortable with the knowledge you have is the day magic stops happening.

[@nmbileg]

Very good advice. I couldn't help myself but share my story. So after I graduating University (not CS major), I was thinking about getting hired at a factory job but one day at night before sleep, suddenly a game idea popped up to my mind, so I was thinking I can't code how am I going to make this game? So I decided to learn to code on my own (from various sources like github, StackOverflow, unity answers, msdn documents and so on), I downloaded Unity Engine (fantastic software) and I did eventually made the game in 7 months. Unfortunately, it wasn't a success. But hey, at least I did it. I finished the game that I was thinking of, plus I learned to code! What now? I continued making games until it succeeded! Finally, I was able to earn money from my own game. Trying and learning 1.5 year without a job and income was tough but hard work does pay off so don't give up, do what you love and work for yourself! (Note: as Andy said in the video, I didn't go through programming textbooks, prerequisites all that stuff, I just jumped right to my project).

[@henrikillsit352]

I am about to finish an advanced boot camp, and number 3 on the list strikes me to the core. Well said

[@krank23]

"Make it a rational decision, don't make it an emotional decision" - this goes for most decisions, I think =)

[@kmn1794]

logic(x) and emotion(x) > logic(x) not emotion(x) > not logic(x) & emotion(x) > not logic(x) not emotion(x)

[@aliomercansizoglu6719]

really helpful video!

[@SajeelCodes]

The greatest reason why you are not becoming a programmer is that you are listening to the people not to your heart and passion. *GOLDEN WORDS* ;)

[@cptpeanut203]

Agreed

[@SajeelCodes]

@@cptpeanut203 its very true

[@SajeelCodes]

@@andres-rodriguez keep smashing

[@anyzzas7149]

Passion is not important at first. It develops later as you progress and start getting good at a certain skill. You can't be passionate about something you suck at!!!

[@SajeelCodes]

@@anyzzas7149 very true man!! (°_°)

[@marcovaleri7279]

Great video

[@TerrenceTSK]

This is actually great advice.

[@setht.1181]

Andy. I totally agreed with what you said. Learn on the fly is a way to survive as a programmer.

[@JD-kf2ki]

Thanks a lot!

[@piratedcodes]

helped me a lot sir

[@Axewhipe]

You are so much of an inspiration

[@duke3250]

Thanks man.

[@enisarik6002]

Amazing, mind opener.

[@waymangoree5346]

Bro your videos are very helpful. As a hooper I understood...

[@chenglalonde5154]

perfectionism, that hits me really hard, it took me a month to finish my portfolio, and Im not even satisfied yet!