[Tutor] An Advice to a dedicated beginner

[Ben Finney]

Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com> writes:

> On 19/01/16 01:15, Michael Appiah Boachie wrote:
> > I am a programming beginner. ...
> > when i sat on my own with a couple of materials and videos,
> > I have become very good at the basics of python and
> > completing various beginner courses and projects with ease 
> > but however I have run into some kind of “beginner wall”
> > where I don’t know where or what to take on next.
>
> The first thing to do is to find a concept or project
> that you want to build. We can't really help you with
> that, it has to come from you. But maybe there is a
> routine task you perform that you could automate?

That's a worthwhile recommendation.

I usually recommend something different: Pick an *existing* code base
that you're already using – Python is used in a great many tools that
you probably rely on, so this shouldn't be difficult – and get the
source code. Find small improvements to make, discuss them with peers
and on this forum, and with the developers of that code base.

Making small improvements to something you already use will avoid the
“blank slate” paralysis from having too many options be motivational,
while also being very motivational: you already can think of
improvements you would like to make, and getting them implemented will
be very satisfying.

It also focusses on an often-dismissed aspect of learning to program:
you need to program *with other people*, and your code is a means of
communicating with those people. Learning how to do that, and learning
(by doing) that there is no shame in starting small and unskilled, is a
necessary part of the craft.

-- 
 \           “The long-term solution to mountains of waste is not more |
  `\      landfill sites but fewer shopping centres.” —Clive Hamilton, |
_o__)                                                _Affluenza_, 2005 |
Ben Finney