Self taught developers, how did you find the energy?

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I understand being tired after work. I started learning programming in my mid forties while working full-time with a family. I made a commitment to putting in a small chunk of time before work. I concentrate better in the morning.

Not going to make this super long, but basically I just did it. Worked retail for 5 years, got sick of it spent the next 2 years learning dev from youtube then found The Odin Project, worked my way through that then worked on other projects. Kept updating my portfolio and sending resumes.

Spend about 4 hours a day on weekdays and 8-12 on weekends every day for almost 2 years(Not saying this is the most efficient just what I did). Just landed my first position a couple weeks ago and I feel like the work I've put in has really paid off, I also started going to thr gym 4-5 times a week and that really helped mentally and energy wise.

I was lucky in many ways, including that I lived close to my old workplace so I could come home and do house duties during lunch break.

Basically, just keep going, learning and building. Good luck

I have a full time dev role now. I study stuff as much as I can during my spare time. One change I made was so stop doing work related programming in my spare time. I was trying to make my own websites with fancy JS frameworks and moderately complex backends. Doing TDD and trying to implement some DDD which I had just studied.

I was kind of burning out from that because it was just a grind.

Recently I got interested in lower level stuff and going back to the basics. I went and learnt some Rust. Worked on building an interpreter. Studied some CS stuff. Dabbled in ASM. It's very fun for me and I look forward to it.

Try to study things you enjoy and are genuinely interested in.

People don't burn out from gaming 12 hours a day even though that can be taxing and high focus.

I imagine myself in 8 years. Making $180k+ with room to grow, in a job where I don’t have to risk my life climbing tall ladders, getting exposed to fumes, and troubleshooting 480v machines.

I first started learning how to code because all of the coolest gaming clans had the most awesome websites back in the day and I wanted my clan to have an awesome website too. 🤣

My motivation came from the fact that i had depression at the time and was scared to death of failing at life and at the same time absolutely hating my job at the time and the field I was in.

I started learning python in early 2021 but quuckly pivoted over to other languages (C# and a few months ago i started to learn C++).

Over time my motivation changed from fear of failure to actually enjoying to build stuff. I started to create small programs, went from CLI applications to GUI applications and thus, step by step ran into new issues, that introduced me to new aspects of programming. Ultimately after 3 years I found a job as a software engineer in C# and SQL.

I didnt code every day, far from it. But I kept at it as much as i could and really focused ib finishing my little projects and then refining them once they were done.

I coded 4-6 hours a day after work and 8-12 hours on weekends for 2-3 years before I moved into a dev job full time. I’d like to pretend I did through sheer will, but it was 40% passion for it and 60% adderal.

Well, lots of people spend mental energy after a long day on their hobbies, or things like video games where you may have to learn a new system for a particular game.

Learning to program is pretty much the same thing. You just need to be able to get into it enough to find reward in accomplishing certain types of things.

You mentioned that you're always thinking of a good idea for an app, but maybe something already does it. That's great - I automate a lot of stuff in my personal life that helps, but it can be difficult and overwhelming when there is a big scope. Sometimes its fun to just program something for fun. It doesn't always have to have a practical application. I remember the first thing that I programmed when I wanted to learn C was to create a rudimentary baseball simulation - just ran in the terminal and is a good way to practice things like loops, arrays, random numbers, etc. It was actually kind of fun running 1000 loops of a game, tweaking the stats of one team, and seeing how that affected the total wins after another 1000 loops.

Learning isn't about motivation, it's about forming habits

I host a meetup for people learning web dev and I tell everyone the same thing. I truly believe the easiest way to keep yourself motivated is to have an idea for a website you want to build and apply what you learn to that site.

For example, I started teaching myself web dev because I had an idea for a website. I started researching and learning how to accomplish what I wanted to see in my site. Not only did it keep me motivated, but it allowed me to take what I was learning and put it in practice.

Got sick of my job, truly completely sick of it. I used to wake up at 5 am for work, having stomach cramps just thinking about it.

Started studying every day after work, for as much as I possibly could. Some days I was too tired, but other days it was 6-8 hours after work.

Quit job after a month of that, then started studying up to 16 hours a day. 6 months later, 1 month of internship, then a full time contract. Starting pay was the ceiling of old job pay.

Best move of my life.

Honestly? get a physical job and study before work. The reason you cant study after work is because you already have a "brain job" and have burnt thru your mental energy. What you need is a job that you can do without thinking about it. You need your mental energy to learn anything - not just coding. after you have depleted your mental energy studying coding, go work construction or something.

It will probably pay less than any remote job you have, but if your issue is mental energy, thats my answer.

I had impetus to survive. Basically worked two part time jobs as both a pediatric medical assistant and a tutor (Chem, physics, bio, and math for high schoolers taking ÁP courses) and was living paycheck to paycheck while paying off student loans. I had dropped med school for a variety of reasons 3 months prior to my self-taught journey and I knew that in order to get out of the hole I was in I needed to take my self-teaching seriously. No matter how tired I was I always made sure to fit in 6 hours almost daily. Treated it like school. Within 6 months I got my first internship (May 2019) and today I’m a director of engineering. Shit was hard lol

Usually anyone who starts learning a programming language has a goal. And that's a good thing. Most of the people I know - who do 6 month bootcamps which keep them motivated due to the circumstance that other people are involved - social component. But I also have some friends who learn by Udemy courses. This surely works (halfway).

10/10 people I know stopped learning once they've pulled themselves through their bootcamps or online courses. Why is that?

If you want to become a good programmer you need to have a high affinity to the topics that come with programming. Not just the goal of being a developer but also the attitude of being curious about topics itself - and this is very important: being proud of you after tiny goals you've achieved. Yesterday I learnt about data structure alignment and its correlation to different byte sizes in the memory in correlation with different data types (in c++). Made me really proud when I finally understood. You're gonna be great gradually.

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tl;dr

+ high affinity to programming topics

+ be curious

+ be proud of intermediate goals

For me, it's all about that dopamine after solving a difficult problem. I am just a junky.

I just started this week and what motivates me is when I feel bored or tired I quickly watch an episode of silicon valley then guess what am back again 😊😊

Start slow, spend only 30 mins to an hour. You have no choice but to dedicate time to it.

If you seriously cannot, then study before work. Change your sleep schedule. Wake up a few hours earlier and study before work.

I also have ADHD, so I get the feeling of trying to watch some classes or courses...

I also loved thinking about new apps and things to make, so I learned by doing that; little by little, I wanted to make a small app that reads from a file with the following format: XXXXXXX ; YYYYYYY XXXXXXX ; YYYYYYY

The app then would ask me X and I should answer Y, I didn't know Anki existed at the time, so I made my own, lol. I started researching "How to read a file with Phython" "How to split a line in Python" "How to receive user input in Python" and so on...

It's true that before that I have used other types of "programming" that didn't use code, so I had my logic a bit more developed, but I started like that with "Real" programming languages, today I have used 10+ languages on my projects, I have mastered 2 of them (C++ & Python) and I am currently on my journey to master Rust & C#. I am now working as a software developer and I couldn't be happier.

I used to work ar Best Buy at a home theater. It was a trip but fun.. I added computers shortly after and toggled between the two.

Now I work at Starbucks, making decent money with added benefits like tips, insurance.. as a Shift Supervisor. but I can relate to the zapped feeling. We do a lot of steps and move at a quick pace with purpose. I’m always moving and handling things.

I’m also in school learning computer programming. It’s pretty satisfying but frustrating at the same time. 10 credits of courses, almost full time. Like 3/4 of the way + 20 -30 hours of work.

Just be mindful and aware of yourself. I took a 9 minute nap at my moms right before my doctors visit at a new primary care doc. It was beneficial.

Have confidence in yourself. My favorite tool is a whiteboard to write my code and programs, and erase easily along with my notes in a notebook. I also use a Rocket Notebook where you can scan the pages and upload with a digital image of your handwriting.

You got this. Your best can look different every day, but give it the effort it deserves on the daily. ✨

I started alone then after a while entered a bootcamp, after the bootcamp it was easier to keep the schedule they made, I kinda copied their schedule to my own.

I just do it. Nothing comes easy in life. If you want something, you’ll find the energy. I worked 50-70hour weeks, I have pretty bad adhd and I’m also autistic. Landed my first job after 3 years of studying after work 1-2 hrs a day.

Best piece of advice I got regarding this that probably helped me actually stick with it is: A) do a set amount every day. And B) when you first get home from work whatever you do, do not give yourself any sort of break don’t lie down don’t sit down and turn on the tv - get home, get to your PC, and get straight to coding.

Bro you're basically talking my life. I love the idea of programming but my brain feels like it won't give me the chance to put in the work because of how easily fatigued that I've gotten. And I've been trying to do this since I was 18 self taught. I'm now 22. I either get so lethargic and fatigued just by either watching a course video or trying to implement what I've learnt. I start to yawn alot, my brain draws alot of blanks, my focus isnt there. I just wanna fall asleep. Its all horrible

I'm in the process of learning Python right now. I also had a difficult time figuring out how to approach learning with a full-time job. I've been tried a few different courses and textbooks over the years but none of them have captured my attention until I found the course I'm taking now. I'm a hands-on learner, so working on projects or learning on the job tends to work better for me. The course I'm taking now teaches you how to make 20 Apps in 60-days. Ardit's a great teacher for me, so I hope this helps you out! Good luck! https://www.udemy.com/course/the-python-mega-course/

It was more curiosity with me. Didn't really think of it as studying, I just wanted to learn how stuff worked.

It sounds like you need to be on r/biohackers, rather than here.

Learn before work, then. Especially, if you work from home, you can carve out some time. Just start getting up at 5am or 6am and study for one or two hours.

Your best bet is probably to partition time before work but not so much as to incumber your work performance.

I also feel the same. However I have tried to make it into a daily routine as part of my life.

Try to do it the same time everyday, so your brain knows it's time. I try and do at least an hour, but if you don't have the time try and have a short sharp burst. Any learning is better than none at all.

I've found just following tutorials being the worst if you're struggling for energy/motivation. The last thing you want to do after a long day of work is watch a video. You're not paying attention at this stage. Try and get your hands in solving a problem or develop a program that you can get into when you open your laptop.

I'm in the same position as you, so I feel you!

Excitement at what's possible! Remember, it doesn't have to be 100,000 lines of code to be inspiring. I get up early and give myself an hour of free time to myself in the morning. On alternating days I will do physical exercise, or development. The secret is to find manageable little mini-projects that are aligned with something you want to build, that help teach you about its building blocks in the form of readily achievable intermediate goals — and you should write these down, creating a plan for yourself where you break the work down into smaller tasks until you have tasks that are achievable in one session. You don't have to have all the finer details planned out before you start anything; it's perfectly fine to have a rough idea of the overview and simply know what you want to achieve today. I think creating a niche for yourself in something you personally find exciting and captivating is a much more sustainable path than trying to jump on a popular bandwagon you couldn't care less about. I say this after having started at the age of 33 and having been in it off and on for the past 30 years. Finally, it's OK to take a break from your goals. Just don't give up on them.

I didn’t see anything in here about fitness. Something really overlooked when someone feels “tired”. As a large guy I know the feeling but at 42 I run every day, I do hot yoga or throw around the kettle bells daily as well. Let me tell you how much more energy I have when I’m working out vs not. The focus skyrockets. If you’re not working out. Put it at the top of your list

It was really hard, especially before the pandemic because i still worked from an office. I learned for about 2 years before i got my first job because time was tight.

I had to give up two things i love for the time i was learning... It wasnt a fun time, heh. Giving up TV and video games is not for the light of heart.

After giving it up, i realized I was able to keep a small amount of TV in my schedule to watch tv with the wife once a week (had to keep my personal life in order), so we had sunday evening to watch together. Video games took one for the team; i probably played a total of ~4-6 hours of video games over those 2 years.

Sorry if my comment is formatted weirdly. My phone acts weird when I type reddit comments

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My experience is still a bit fresh but I've been coding consistly since March. Recently I began developing games in pygame to get better. I'm taking a "break" from my structured classes on Udemy to build some of my own projects.

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I started really small at first. Butting in 30mins to 1 hour. Nowadays I code for 4-8 hours.

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I work from home so I'm able to dedicate a lot of time to it. But I dont think that's my source of motivation. I worked from home for a while and didn't do shit else for a whole year. My motivation comes from a multitude of things. 1. Therapy helping find ways to manage my expectations. 2. Creating an accountability/goal board to highlight my achievements. And getting nice things for myself when I complete something. 3. Reframing why I do the things I do to be less superficial. I also just happen to love video games and problem solving and have a habit of persistency of something in trying to solve isn't working. I learned that I hpyer focus on things like that and and trying to harness that with programming. Lastly. I'm using things like trello to manage my projects so that I can visualize my work and get the full potential out of my effort. Mind you. I'm a pretty unorganized, procrastinating guy. These are things I'm doing for myself as a result of therapy, life struggles/humblings, and personal realization that help be keep myself in check. I'm training myself to be this way and I think that's all there is to it. It's hard as shit because you can be your own worst enemy, but it's also okay. Self compassion is probably the biggest help in being able to move forward, even if I don't feel like doing something because it's what allows you to not disregard the progress you've made, no matter how little it may seem to you. Mind you I'm still a complete noob but in 3-4 months I went from writing basic code terminal/text games to graphical games and bots. I feel comfortable calling myself a developer.

You sound a lot like me. I recommend just jumping right in. Start small. Don't let the thought that you need to move faster in order to catch up. It should be a fun experience if you find it fascinating. Take the time to play around with it. If it's something you ACTUALLY like. Then you'll pursue it increasingly.

Self taught or formal education, it always helps to eat, sleep, and shit it.

By necessity. I struggle everyday but I don't want to stop.

Not sound advice but I work a pretty intensive labor job and what keeps me going to code for hours on end is nicotine. My mind runs rampant when I'm by my lonesome trying to study. A few hits of nicotine and I stay locked into whatever I'm doing on my computer. Again, not good advice. Also, complete coding challenges on your own. I find that when I make these small accomplishments, I get a good dopamine rush and it motivates me to keep learning.

Discipline and passion. If you dont have either gg

I was unemployed for a good few years... spent a lot of time on caffeine fueled all nighters. Really upped my programming skills that way lol

Honestly I just liked coding so i get my energy there. I admit a lot of times i would stay up too late and then that might ruin the next day of studying. 10 years is a long time though. I think all in all it took 3 years of self study before I felt okay at coding Jr level and then 5 more years of self study to get to a senior level understanding

Absolutely hated every other job I had. Hated being broke, just got tired of it. Motivated me to stick with it

I was a sys admin and I would use problems I came across that didn't have a good solution as a prompt to writing a program. I need to do x but the software out there is either too expensive or too broken to use. This would encintivise me to work on it because it made my job easier. For example I needed to organize about 600 gigs of photos into folder tree of year\month\day by the day the photo was taken not when the file was created. I was denied any request to purchase software and the open-source solutions I found would crash due to the number of files. So I created an app that did it for me. Eventually I got enough practice in to get an entry level job at a giant corporation. Their training took me the rest of the way.

I wake up every day and a voice in my head tells me to make games and (at my day job) make money. If I didn't have these voices in my head, I'd probably do something more normal like, kick a soccer ball or something.

I tried self-learning while working, but I struggled with applying what I learned and making progress. I took a chance on an apprenticeship program with a pay-cut, but being paid to learn and have the costs covered was very nice. Just wanted to share a few thoughts from my experience.

The best lifestyle changes I made was getting more sleep and eating better. I could spend all day head down on learning courses, associated project work, or personal projects. But if I'm tired or burnt out it is just wasted effort.

Regarding a self-learning route my first tip is to have a plan of what you're wanting to learn. Having a plan to track progress against and keep accountability helped motivate me during my apprenticeship. Also, while e-learning courses are very helpful, hands-on practical "project" experience has been the best way for me, and many people I work with, to learn. Projects can also provide motivation for you to learn more in order to implement/fix a feature.

To add to all good things already said - don't learn plain theory. When I had started to learn programming, I thought that you don't know what you don't know, so I have to read textbooks first. And in some time I realised that I know quite a lot, but can do nothing and what you don't use you gradually forget. So spend all the time you dedicate to studying at least evenly between theory and practice (it may be just exercises from a textbook for the beginning). Also the thing worked for me is a schedule and a spreadsheet where I put all the notes about time spent on learning - without that I had not been able to realise why my progress is slow. So good luck!

The first year was brutal. Having a friend/mentor that would check up on my progress helped a ton. I probably would have quit without him.

Once I got to where I could sit down and do stuff without Google it became fun.

Money. I went to college and got a good 4 year business degree and started job hunting. I noticed a lot of my college friends were landing 6 figure jobs, while the jobs popping up on my radar were mid 5 figures. I was vaguely knowledgeable from hobbies, so I got some certs, brushed up using some online sources or textbooks, and leveraged the dev knowledge with the 4 year business degree I had. Made for interesting interviews.

Having a micromanaging boss that made the worlds easiest job into my most hated job (desktop support for a school with only 20 teachers) was more than enough motivation for me.

I go to bed early-ish and make sure to get a good night's sleep. I get up at 5:30 in the morning and do it then before the family day starts. I found nootropics help me focus and retain memory better, they generally boosts my cognitive function and focus. Have a look what works for you and do your research, there are special stacks for add and ADHD related problems. Trial and error I guess. Noopept abd Phenylpiracetam work wonders for my brain.

for me it was a fun factor in coding. I could see it being extremely useful and it was around time when all I did is study pure theory at school. When it comes to struggle: I feel extremely lonely at times. I guess I just dont hangout around people of the same interest as me. I can tell my family whatever and they will not understand :-( .

I wanted to create games since 15-16.
I learned C, then C++, with SDL and SFML.
After 2D, I went to 3D with Unity and C#.
While doing so, I discovered that I liked a lot to code, learn new things, resolve bugs, implement features, and create complex algorithms. That's my job now (full stack dev).

I am in the very similar boat as you. It's a freaking stuggle for me, tired after work (especially now in this horrendous heat), it's hard for me to concentrate as well. I wake up early in the morning (it's freaking hard because I am a night owl) and I do some learning before work. I need to find a better solution or something, maybe get a therapy because my mental state not being the best (I have some adhd symptoms but I really don't know since I am not a doctor).

I went from no experience to landing my first software development role in six months.

I started learning at the end of last year while on maternity leave with my youngest daughter.

I’ve always wanted to learn and have attempted to do so many times over! Paying for a bootcamp was really beneficial to me and then paying for scrimba pro. Mostly because I felt more committed! If you need some support or have some questions feel free to DM me.

"I’ve wanted to learn coding since I were 16. So over 10 years now. But I was never good in academics, dropped out and got a GED at 16."

Dude, don't sell yourself short. You were literally ahead of your peers in academics. Most people graduate high school at 17. You took the initiative of graduating early by dropping out of school and getting a GED. A true go getter. Most people just stay in school and graduate at the normal schedule.

I was an ore-teen when I first learned so I had unlimited energy... That being said nowadays I just aside an hour or two for personal projects after work. My motivation and energy comes from my excitement for my personal projects.

I was a lot younger when I first started out and could stay up to 2am several times a week. I would work all night long reading and making demo apps. Posting them so others could try them out worked great for self-marketing.

I can help you!!

I also have the same goals of creating my own programs.

I'll write later with more info!

I've been researching for years and am at the point of creation. I can show you the way!

There is no magic formula. Is just sitting down and working on it. Find some time during your day. If you are tired after work, do something small but non addictive to help you rest. So, don't go to TikTok or something, but take a bath or make something to eat. Something you can't endlessly do but it requieres low mental effort.

Once that's done, set yourself in a timer. Say 2 hours,or more or less, doesn't matter just a strict time you will sit down and focus on this one thing only.

Try to do it for a week or so and see how you feel, maybe you find you can do more hours, or that you can't handle that many. Then change accordingly until you find the sweet spot.

Is also important to give you time off as much as possible. If you work from M-F you may not have the willpower to do it on the weekend, and you would rather rest.

That's fine, keep weekends for resting and weekdays for working /learning.

Do it enough and you will see some progress, which will make it easier.

The hardest part is to continue doing it. At first there is so much you don't know everything is new. But at some point you know enough to do basic stuff, and the "aha!" moments come less often. That's the hard part, to do something you have done a million times and still like it. But you can always improve it.

Maybe find ways to make your loops shorter. Or maybe if you do a loop many times you put it in its own little file, and koe every time you work on something you don't have to rewrite it but use that one little loop. That's also progress, now you are more efficient and you can see how much you have progressed.

At end of the day, you have to do it. There is no other way around it.

I understand the college part... I was self taught in high school because I went to a ghetto Catholic school whose only class on computers was typing. My motivation wasnt to learn programming, though, it was to make an online game with byond.com. When I got college I found out I'm not a good student either. I'm 90% sure I'm dyslexic so I really should have been studying even more than I did, but once I get out the classroom, my mind just wants to not study, lol. Hang out with friends, play video games, watch tv, stare at grass grow. Anything was better than sitting in a room and studying. Wind up graduating with just above a 2.0, which was minimum gpa requirement. Still have the debt though. And I see now, school costs way more, so I can see your concern

Read or listen to a summary of Deep Work by Cal Newport.

You will get results through CONSISTENCY over INTENSITY. Set a goal of 10 minutes every day in the morning. Non-negotiable. If you have the capacity, do more, but don't go hard and burnout.

A lot of us make the mistake of getting motivated, trying to do too much and go full steam ahead, only to burnout and stop completely a week or month later

I am 44 and always wanted to learn how to make games. It was basic when I was little and I could never master it. I tried again and again over the years but never quite got there.

Then I saw a video by Blackthornprod on YouTube. It's called learn c# through 9 lines of code. Very basic but it really does have the key to get cracking and you could make one with these lines.

I used to listen to it on the way to work every morning, a 10 minute walk. Then throughout the day I'd try to remember these 9 lines and what they did.

After a while I tackled some gamedev.tv courses and these helped but tutorials are a bit dry for me. So I just cracked into making games and building on those 9 lines of code.

That was 8 months ago. I'm now building a game for commercial release. You can do it just follow the advice given below, ultimately persistence will pay off.

Good luck!

I genuinely enjoy it and often times find gaming unrewarding when I COULD be either coding, modeling or working in a video game in some way.

I had the advantage of being super interested at a young age (11 or 12) and absorbing all the information as much as possible, even though I still wasn't good at programming and still aren't. Playing games like minecraft motivated me to learning java at the time.

I saw how difficult poor people had it in my country (Kenya). That's all the motivation I needed.🫡

As someone with ADHD and is learning to program. I found a lot of success with speeding up videos to 1.5x or 2x . I’m not sure if it’s just me but speeding it up stops my brain from wondering too much

My situation was exactly like that when I was 16. I was very fond of computers which inspired me to learn more and I decided to became game dev. So society instill the idea of college. I went college like 2 yrs and decided to drop out as I observed my progress and I achieved absolutely nothing, no knowledge that could lead me to game dev, just some things that I already have learned and debt. After I left college, it was hard for few months as my parents didn't like the idea.

I worked on myself, educated myself to becoming a game dev and now I am 23yrs old working as a game dev in a big company earning 6 figures and everything is perfect rn. Looking back now, dropping out of college was the best decision I could ever make and learned that

"YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE!!"

I hope my story helps you even a bit. Stay positive.

Theres no secrets. Just constantly learning is how I get away from boredom. And completing projects is the best feeling. There are times where I get lost and after so much searchin I find that one missing piece to a solution and being able to solve it is the best part of it all.

I had a business goal in mind that kept me motivated. Work towards a goal. You have to find something to keep you motivated

Hey Pal. Learning is hard when you don’t know what you don’t know. Definitely focus on the fundamentals of programming before you get lost in the weeds of abstraction. Practice is important so I want to share one of my favorite things that should help you or anyone else that reads this comment.

A book titled Exercises for Programmers: https://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Programmers-Challenges-Develop-Coding/dp/1680501224

This isn’t a book on DSA but I swear to you if you are a true beginner it will build your confidence. It’s great for learning new languages too.

Take my advice learn to code don’t be like me an experience professional sushi chef of ten years who hates but is very grateful for his job.

But puts no love into his work please if it’s your passion do it!

same, love coding, constantly get ideas of things to build that would solve problems. Couldn’t focus nor retain information, turns out i have ADD. It’s always worth a assessment, never too late.

start building something you like, and don't pressure yourself to do it quickly.

If you are tired AFTER work would it be feasible for you to get up a bit early and try to code BEFORE work?

When I worked from home I was rolling out of bed like 10 minutes before I had to clock in. Idk if that’s your situation but if so, it might be good to try to sneak in an hour or two in the mornings and if you enjoy what you’re working on you might even be motivated to study more after work too!

find a project that you want to do. It's easiest way to learn. Like why do you want to learn programming? I assume there is something that you want to build? Start building it.

I got lucky that I was a kid at the time. If it were nowadays, I would be fucked.

How many hours a day you put won’t take you long, but how many days you stay consistent is the real game changer. Do the 100 Days of Code challenge, with a minimum of 15-30 minutes a day. Journal your journey day by day. Write what you learned today and what you want to learn tomorrow. Beginnings will always be hard, but you got this!

Find your best time in day to learn, as for me I focused more at night so I grind coding usually at night time

Started coding at 15. Often missed nights of sleep. This was mainly PHP/MySql/HTML/CSS/JS (yeah I know, html and css are not coding).

It was before the common cms frameworks were available.

The euphoria of figuring things out kept me going.

After PHP, I learned some C#, VBA for my work in the early days, later Python. Then Arduino for home automation.

Once you get going, and you have curiosity, it's a neverending journey.

I've always found having a specific problem to solve helps. "Learning to code" is too big. I might decide I'm going to take the time I have over a week to get a specific NuGet package playing ball, or to refactor a class that's got messy.

As someone with adhd I have this small technique (it's not easy but once you get it rolling it helps a ton)

Force yourself to start but do not blame yourself at the end.

Try to allocate a (preferably wide open) time slot for studying. Like: "I will begin my studies today at 6pm"

And force yourself to start at 6pm the latest.

Then if you only had enough attention span for 5 minutes or 5 hours both are ok, both are good!

Also it doesn't need to be all days 6pm but you can schedule yourself on a daily basis, where the goal is to commit to that schedule that you just made for the day. and if you're really struggling also commit yourself for a minimum of days each week:like "I'm going to code 2 days this week" and adhere to it even if it means 15 minutes on Saturday and 5 on Sunday.

We tend to believe that starting is the most difficult part but it is only the most difficult part because we get frustrated by how little we usually can devote ourselves(on top of our executive disfunction) .

So the less you blame yourself for your "lack" of commitment will actually allow you to commit even more.

What kind of coding do you want to learn mobile or web?

You work in an energy deficit for years until you’re good

Its not energy. its motivation. with enough motivation, you will find the energy.

For me no matter how I feel I try my best after work to try and learn a programming language in this case I’m currently on a web dev roadmap that I’ve been following. I’m currently on JavaScript. I’ll try my best to explain how my brain processes everything I guess but I do auto detailing and work outside in the heat, when I get home I’m always beat lmao don’t feel like doing anything but what I do is once I get home I shower and once I’m done I spend about 30 seconds to wash myself in very cold water, I do this to wake myself up a bit, then I go change and hit the laptop to code. I try not to think about how tired I am I just do it. Eventually it’ll just come naturally. It took me a while but now I’ve been programming everyday. At least an hour but if I’m in the zone I code and research certain topics at that time that I’m learning, ext: “variables in JavaScript” for about 2-4 hours a day. I try to make it an everyday routine no matter how I feel because I know it’ll be worth the struggle at the end of the day. I hope my message helps you and wishing everyone that sees this the best in whatever they want to get out of programming.

I was able to quit my job and just gamble that I could do it in 6 months, basically worked on learning and building non trivial things as soon as I could all day every day. It ended up working, and having a shitty construction job and enjoying it was my motivation.

I have studied in school from home. I sometimes cannot do anything learning bymyself or some indepentend programming if there is even some unorganozed stuff behind my back. Everything needs to be clear. So it takes so much time to start projects or finish school work. Because it takes 2 days that I just focus on that and forget evrything else. One game course took me 2 weeks everyday at least 12h of work. I was totally burned out after that. Some middle level would be better…

I worked an hour commute from my job as a laborer. My shifts were 10 hours long. Generally I would tackle new material on the weekends, and then build dumb stuff with my new knowledge while practicing older material during the week. Once I got deep into JavaScript it started getting super hard to keep at it everyday. My saving grace was a group project. I felt guilty if I didn’t keep on my sigma grind mode with the rest of my group. This kind of forced me to push everyday for 2 months. Then I took a tech break. Then I just kept rinsing and repeating this pattern of group work, helping other homies with their projects, and tech breaks. It took me a year and a half from 0 code to landing a JR spot. I start next week. Find a small community of grinders. Feed off of each other. Stop fucking off and get that cash.

Get excited about building your own ideas. Learn the skills you need to build them. That’s what kept me motivated and wanting to learn

I started programming 13yo, started working 18yo, now I'm still sw dev, 52yo.

Long story short: demoscene (coding, music, sizecoding, size music, tooling), personal projects (embedded, music, compiler, framework, various stuff).

Although difficult, it’s still possible to learn to code despite having a full time job. Right after work is not the most ideal time since that’s when your mind is fried. You could put in the time on your days off. Also, you could relax/nap after work and then put in some time in the evening.

I find that constantly reminding myself of the prospects of working as a programmer really motivates me to grind. If I’m really not feeling it for whatever reason(i.e tiredness, boredom, etc.) I just take a break but then I make sure I to come right back to it.

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This here is your problem. Many of us who are self-taught are motivated by something much more than just money - interest, a desire to learn, a curiosity to understand how computers work, and a general appreciation for the ghost in the machine. Money alone won't drive you very far.

Not being happy where you are in life is more than enough motivational energy. I lost my job in the medical field after working insanely hard to make good money in it but after I was fired my mind just changed…If you want it you’ll get up and do it. Also once you begin to learn and get certifications you’ll get even more fired up trust me

Being able to build something and having the skills to do that over making millions for assholes my entire life

Adderall

I am self taught as well, I have gone through html, css and currently on advanced JavaScript. I'll say your motive should bring the motivation, for me, I want to be able to have a skill to create an idea I will have and having coding skill is very important. Also I like the dynamic of learning new things

If you think you have adhd, definitely go for an assessment with a specialist! It can truly change he path you're on positively if you're correctly diagnosed and treated

Before switching to tech, i was a linguistic grad. Learning a language is one of the most boring and strenuous task it can be. It can take around 8 to 10 years with daily exposure for a normal person to be comfortable with using a foreign language. Im used to this process, its just 1 day at a time, little by little.

Try not to think about the entire journey or the destination at all else youll get overwhelmed pretty quickly, just focus on one small problem at a time each day.

Plus, on the bright side, for me at least, learning programming takes much less time than a real life language and i can clearly see my progress after just a month or two which is incredible.

I’m the same as you. I usually learn things more easily by doing simple projects, which with most of my hobbies is pretty easy to do. I wanted to learn how to play guitar so I started learning songs I liked; I wanted to get into leatherwork so I made a couple wallets; etc.

Programming is hard for me because it’s so vast and non-linear that learning projects doesn’t really help much in a practical context. I can do projects that will teach me how to make GUI applications, or I can learn scripting, but there aren’t a lot of skill that carry from one to the other besides things like syntax and the like.

Programming requires a really strong foundation that isn’t super easy to pick up passively as you learn more specific concepts, and that’s the kind of thing you’d normally try to learn through course work or in a class setting. Which I hate.

I’ve had the best luck with The Odin Project so far. It’s for web development, but I’m hoping what I learn by the time I’m finished can be applied to other languages, as well. It explains things in a very easy to understand way, and you’re constantly making things throughout the whole thing. That keeps me motivated because I have something tangible that shows me how these things I’m learning can actually be useful.

I’m studying SQL now at 30 with a full time job and my answer is adderall

You just have to commit. I’m also going the self taught route for about 8 months now and I work a 40-50 hour sales position on top of coding 2-5 hours a night with 8-10 on weekend. My biggest advice is jut put everything aside (phone, Netflix everything) make them not an option. I went as far as canceling a lot of my subscriptions. Make it were your only other option is coding or staring at a blank wall. Your brain will want to code over staring at a blank wall.

I feel like I have ADD because

Honestly, get a doctor appointment to get a psych referral to get medication. People with ADHD report that it's a game changer.

Unfortunately, putting off doctor's appointment is also ADHD thing.

For me I enjoyed it so much, it’s all I wanted to do with my free time. I’m sure you find the time to do things you enjoy like watch TV, use social media, play video games, etc. For me it was as enjoyable as any of those, so it was easy to stay motivated. If you don’t feel that way it’s going to be hard to stay motivated, even if you have all the time in the world

I started around a similar age, as that’s when I got my first computer, and have been programming ever since. For me it wasn’t a question of finding the energy, instead I had an unhealthy interest in working on whatever I was working on. So I’d spend most of my free time working on those projects, and would even stay up as long as I could working on them.

Curiosity only goes so far, hatred keeps you going

I made a time schedule, first put the time blocks that are needed, such as cleaning, cooking etc. Enough sleep, 10hour block for work. Scheduled exercising too, helps the mind a lot!

Left me with 2 hours a day programming, and 2x6hours on my 2 days off a week. Leaves enough time over for life.

I'm a morning person, starting work at 6am.

I'm "lucky" to spend around 4 hours a day in the car, have some podcasts to listen to and looking into 'audible' for some more "bookreading" while working my dayjob.

My current dayjob is nice, but I'm at the limits, money wise but certainly also brain wise. "Never be the smartest person in the room", had the chance to work with and learn from very skilled persons. If I want to make another step upwards, this is what I need to do. It's a great motivator.

Good luck to you.

find the energy? I am the energy…

I'm certain others already mentioned this, but I'll add to it too. If you feel like you can't think after work and your mind must rest, simply flip it around, go earlier to bed, wake up earlier and do the learning before work, instead of after.

I used to come to work 1-1.5 hours before my shift start, I would use TeamViewer to connect to my PC at home and I would learn until I had to start work related things. Now, why did I not stay at home to do this? Simply because I couldn't get myself to do it, I just wanted to get back to bed and sleep, but if I was at my workplace, I had all this time, and nothing to do with it, so I learned.

My wife got pregnant and I knew that if I didn’t study and get myself to beginner level programmer than my family wouldn’t have much money to do anything.

You could get a cs degree and get loans to pay for your living expenses so that you can focus all of your attention on coding. If you do it the right way you can graduate with very manageable debt

There will always be some excuse that we all think of to get out of being productive. For me it was/is: I am too tired or stressed about having to work so I just want to spend every minute chilling. I bet I got that mindset from high school and probably even middle school where really all I had to do was show up and maybe have a bit of homework after that I was done. The classic all I have to do is my obvious obligations mindset.

The only thing that gets me to practice is to stop thinking and just do it. I personally can't hype myself up with thoughts of more money or hate for other jobs or dreams of the future, despite that working for others. I already know this is for me. I leanred I can't keep thinking about doing the laundry first, cleaning my room first, or whining about having to work tomorrow or else I will not get anything at all done. I just keep a mental note of what topics I need to learn next and shut off that distracting part of my brain when I know it is time.

It is kinda funny how no matter how much I enjoyed the last studying session I still have to re-force myself every time. That is why you can't rely on motivation or hype permanently.

When I was an analyst I would sell an idea to my boss about how I could automate something if he gave me the time to code the solution. Had a ton of fun automating some tasks and getting the experience during work.

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