How to become more motivated to learn Python

[Christopher Reimer]

On 5/3/2016 4:20 AM, Cai Gengyang wrote:
> So I have completed up to CodeAcademy's Python Unit 2 , now moving on to Unit3 : Conditionals and Control Flow.
>
> But I feel my motivation wavering , at times I get stuck and frustrated when trying to learn a new programming language ?
>
> This might not be a technical question per say, but it is a Python programming related one. How do you motivate a person (either yourself or your child) to become more interested in programming and stick with it ? Is determination in learning (especially in a tough field like software) partly genetic ?
>
> Related , This is a very well written essay on determination by Paul Graham ----------------------------------------http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html
>
> Gengyang

I started out translating old BASIC games into Python. These are the 
same BASIC games that I tried to program into my Commodore 64 without 
much success when I was much younger. Many of these BASIC games are a 
good introduction to classical programming problems like rolling dice 
and playing cards.

http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/

When I realized that I wasn't learning enough about the Python language 
from translating BASIC games, I started coding a chess engine. If you 
ever look at the academic literature for chess programming from the last 
50+ years, you can spend a lifetime solving the programming challenges 
from implementing the game of kings.

Thank you,

Chris R.