I love programming and learning the languages but I need help on enhancing myself.

1    29 Jul 2015 18:01 by u/Nujabes

Hey /v/Programming!

I'm Nujabes, a 5th year undergraduate majoring in IT with a minor in IS. I enjoy programming a lot and want to enhance my skills in programming. The problem is, I tend to learn a programming language's basics then from there I get bored of the language and move onto another one.

What I WANT to do is take a language and actually create something out of it. Something interesting or fun/funny. I need some guidance in how to start.

The languages I know are Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, Java, MongoDB, Node, and Git.

One thing I want to do is create an app for my Pebble Time watch to check on upcoming times for the NJTransit. I dunno how possible that is but that's one thing I do want to do. Another is to start up a website for motivation. I already have a youtube channel I'm working on for motivating others and want to try and make a business out of that.

Sorry if this is a bit broad or something but I just want to really get myself going on growing in programming.

Thanks in advance and have a fantastic day!

3 comments

1 u/moses_blimey 30 Jul 2015 20:45

I need some guidance in how to start.

Create a need to learn, and then everything will fall into place.

For 8 years now, I wanted to learn Ruby on Rails. I would get as far as rails generate my_blog and then stop. Then I took on a contract job in which I promised a client a user authenticated Rails app. The contract provided 2 things that I never had before when learning Rails: 1) because I had to explain my development plan to the client, I thought through and documented how I was going to design and implement this app. Doing so provided a clear direction on my path to learning Ruby on Rails. 2) Because my bank account would be affected on my performance, I was sincerely motivated to turn out good work in short time.

I can't just write code for the hell of it. There has to be a compelling reason behind it.

1 u/Nujabes [OP] 30 Jul 2015 20:59

I think that's my same thought, that I need a compelling reason behind why I'm writing it. That's why I took up Master_foo on his offer. Now I'll have some reason behind it.

0 u/Master_Foo 30 Jul 2015 00:46

The best thing to do would be to join a project with experienced devs.

I have some open source projects with some entry level / low commitment work that might be good training for you. I'd be willing to mentor you in exchange for contribution.

It has nothing to do with Pebble, but I can get you started on some web stuff, or game engine stuff.

PM me if interested.