DON’T Do Another Programming Course

Are you considering taking another coding course? Wait! Before you do, watch this video. I made this video to explain why personal projects might be a more effective way to enhance your programming skills than traditional coding courses.
Hands-on learning through personal projects have a unique strength, including how they foster problem-solving skills, encourage innovation, and provide real-world coding experience.
Whether you're a beginner programmer or looking to advance your skills, this video offers insights into how self-directed projects can lead to significant growth and understanding in coding. Plus, get tips on how to start your own projects with the help of ChatGPT and make the most out of the learning process.
ChatGPT prompts shown in this video: docs.google.com/document/d/1G...
Getting started with Open Source article: stackoverflow.blog/2020/08/03...
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🙋🏻‍♂️ Or say hello on LinkedIn: / leonard-thiele
#programming #codingprojects #learncoding #selftaught #programmingcourses #PersonalProjects #codingskills #programmingtips
Chapters in this video
00:00 Intro
01:13 Content
01:37 Limitations of formal courses
03:14 Self-learning
06:26 How to get started
07:04 My examples
09:01 Open Source
10:39 Practical Examples (with ChatGPT)
14:12 Outro

[@leonardthiele]

Do you agree with my sentiment? Or do you have a different approach? Would love to read how you learned coding effectively and how it could help others to get started.

[@mother_of_dinos]

This is fantastically timed, I'm just starting into my next school project which requires a certain tech-stack and outcome, but I'll be tailoring it to ensure that it's a passion project for myself to enjoy! (everything I make is nerdy hahah) was just thinking it's such a huge undertaking to plan a fullstack project and have tried asking AI for some guidance, but these prompts look really good and I'll definitely give them a try and see what it says 😊

[@leonardthiele]

Happy to read that. Please try them out and leave feedback if you find something that can be improved. A full-stack project is always intimidating at first, but if you continue to use ChatGPT to get unstuck it’ll work out. I’m sure! Hope you have fun.

[@viktoryiarymkevich]

Really great advice and well-summarized! Theory and practice are the same in theory but not in practice :) Thank you for including the prompts, I think it is going to be very useful for a quick and easy start when inspiration for a project comes.

[@leonardthiele]

"Theory and practice are the same in theory but not in practice" - what a great quote!

[@tanzimibthesam5861]

Great books can help a lot specially if you have one which has exercises after each chapter. I found that way effective in logic building. Great video.

[@leonardthiele]

That’s true. Although I would argue that even to work through a book effectively, one should have a good reason. Thank you

[@thetruth9807]

Who will you choose, someone with a CS degree or someone that was "passionate" about personal projects with no degree? We all know who employers prefer

[@jasoncole7711]

Hmmmmm. The problem with someone who hasn't taken any formal education is that they don't have any depth of knowledge; they (often) only know "just enough" to get themselves by for the projects they've done. I remember turning down a really impressive candidate we interviewed because I got the vibe that they just googled their way to get their projects done but didn't have any peripheral knowledge. I have also worked with someone who was fantastic at googling solutions to problems, they had a real knack to searching for articles to learn from but some of their work featured really suboptimal tactics. Furthermore I keep myself up to date by learning from books, videos, seminars etc but I'd much rather take a professional course which would reduce impostor syndrome. Many "courses" are now delivered online and they're crap; there's nothing as good as being taught something in a proper classroom.

[@fuchrr4519]

Is there anything in specific you think people miss? Im an auto engineering major but im learning to code for fun and i love it. I want to get better and i feel fairly competent after about a year but im always learning. Id love specific recommendations on what to learn, 2 ive heard recently being set theory and category theory

[@leonardthiele]

I agree, Jason. Foundational theory is definitely needed and I had the same experience as you. The motivation for this video came from observing people completing one course after another, thinking that they are actually learning. Hence the "another" in the title. I think it's a spectrum from theory to practice, being very one-sided always has their downsides.

[@leonardthiele]

I am curious what Jason will answer, but I would say the following is definitely helpful: Understanding basic data structures, graph and tree algorithms, algorithmic complexity and maybe basic math and logic related to computer science. After that I would say understanding how computers work fundamentally, networking, databases, and system design are extremely useful in the real world.

[@kernelparadigm]

Objection, presonal projects without formal knowledge or guidance is as useless as someone who has taken too many courses in hind sight. Most need proper mentorship or should be extremely gifted to be a good self thought SE. In most cases these are protoges who started programming as kids.