I came across this in Learn Python the Hard Way and found it to be incredibly encouraging and just thought it might do the same for someone else that may be struggling!!!
Learn Python the Hard Way
As you study this book, and continue with programming, remember that anything worth doing is difficult
at first. Maybe you are the kind of person who is afraid of failure, so you give up at the first sign of difficulty.
Maybe you never learned self-discipline, so you can’t do anything that’s “boring.” Maybe you were told
that you are “gifted,” so you never attempt anything that might make you seem stupid or not a prodigy.
Maybe you are competitive and unfairly compare yourself to someone like me who’s been programming
for more than 20 years.
Whatever your reason for wanting to quit, keep at it. Force yourself. If you run into a Study Drill you can’t
do, or a lesson you just do not understand, then skip it and come back to it later. Just keep going because
with programming there’s this very odd thing that happens. At first, you will not understand anything. It’ll
be weird, just like with learning any human language. You will struggle with words and not know what
symbols are what, and it’ll all be very confusing. Then, one day, BANG—your brain will snap and you
will suddenly “get it.” If you keep doing the exercises and keep trying to understand them, you will get it.
You might not be a master coder, but you will at least understand how programming works.
If you give up, you won’t ever reach this point. You will hit the first confusing thing (which is everything at
first) and then stop. If you keep trying, keep typing it in, keep trying to understand it and reading about it,
you will eventually get it. If you go through this whole book, and you still do not understand how to code,
at least you gave it a shot. You can say you tried your best and a little more, and it didn’t work out, but at
least you tried. You can be proud of that.
Learn Python the Hard Way
As you study this book, and continue with programming, remember that anything worth doing is difficult
at first. Maybe you are the kind of person who is afraid of failure, so you give up at the first sign of difficulty.
Maybe you never learned self-discipline, so you can’t do anything that’s “boring.” Maybe you were told
that you are “gifted,” so you never attempt anything that might make you seem stupid or not a prodigy.
Maybe you are competitive and unfairly compare yourself to someone like me who’s been programming
for more than 20 years.
Whatever your reason for wanting to quit, keep at it. Force yourself. If you run into a Study Drill you can’t
do, or a lesson you just do not understand, then skip it and come back to it later. Just keep going because
with programming there’s this very odd thing that happens. At first, you will not understand anything. It’ll
be weird, just like with learning any human language. You will struggle with words and not know what
symbols are what, and it’ll all be very confusing. Then, one day, BANG—your brain will snap and you
will suddenly “get it.” If you keep doing the exercises and keep trying to understand them, you will get it.
You might not be a master coder, but you will at least understand how programming works.
If you give up, you won’t ever reach this point. You will hit the first confusing thing (which is everything at
first) and then stop. If you keep trying, keep typing it in, keep trying to understand it and reading about it,
you will eventually get it. If you go through this whole book, and you still do not understand how to code,
at least you gave it a shot. You can say you tried your best and a little more, and it didn’t work out, but at
least you tried. You can be proud of that.
