Yeah I agree. I learned the most when I just set my mind to accomplish something. This will actually get you to do real troubleshooting as well and not just checking where you failed the tutorial.
That’s probably why I don’t feel good at programming. I just don’t have “that project” I want to do yet so I’m stuck in tutorial hell where I can finish the tasks but tell me to go build a website and I’m lost on where to start. Odin Project at least forced me to start from scratch after a while, but it really shows just how bad my planning is to build something from the ground up.
The things that got me through it were Learn Python The Hard Way and having a project I was aiming to build. I was working at a jazz bar at the time and I wanted to build a membership and seating plan system for them. Needless to say it was terrible and we never got to using it but it gave me a really good goal with real-life problems to solve.
This post rather got me questioning what skills or talents I have. None.
So I guess all of them are taking me way longer. When I want to learn something, I usually end up spiralling into thoughts that it’s too late for me and I should have known that much sooner, like others did.
I find this hard to believe. Are you thinking talent shows and CV accomplishments? We’ve got a whole society of people undervaluing their soft skills, and work traditionally relegated to women.
I personally am one of these people who doesn’t ever get to the point where I feel I am an expert in a skill. I really love to learn enough to understand what “my” experts are talking about, and understand why they love it. Then I usually move onto something else to see if there’s a better fit.
Having people in my life lavishing praise upon me for things that I don’t consider that impressive is probably something that helps keep perspective, though, and I guess that is an experience I wish more people had.
Tying shoe laces. One day I could just do it without looking. Before then I couldn’t do it at all, way behind the class by about a year, an embarrassment to my parents.
Job… applications and interviews? The combination of constant rejection, fawning, self aggrandisement, and constantly changing arbitrary standards for all stages just does not gel at all with my combination of rejection sensitivity, slightly different fawning, self deprecation, and bucking against arbitrary social standards etc. I’ve only gotten one job ever from cold calling since I started applying in 2004. Every other time I’ve known someone, and it’s usually a few years between jobs
Snapping my fongers. People tried to teach me throughout my childhood, but zi just couldn’t get it. Then, when I was maybe sixteen or so, I had a dream that someone taught me to snap, and in the dream I could do it! I woke up from that dream snapping my fingers, and have been able to do it ever since.
I guess my unconscious mind finally put all the pieces together and it all finally just, pun intended, clicked.
I remember when I was in primary school it was told that it wasn’t actually the amplified sound of your finger slapping against your palm and cavity formed by other fingers, but pockets of nitrogen in your knuckles. This made it harder for some kids to do it.
I started getting into music in 2017, couldn’t make a song for shit until 2023 I finally got to a decent spot. Though even then I have a lot of failed attempts still but I think that’s normal.
Hey that’s about when I started! And I also have a LOOOOT of awful stuff, but only now am I starting to occasionally make stuff that I don’t immediately hate.
Currently participating in Weekly Beats, which is something I’d never have considered even a year ago.
Of course, I’ll be learning the entire rest of my life, so…
Skate stuff. Could never do anything more difficult than a static, barely decent Ollie. And I was a teen, lots of free time, I spent hours and hours and hours for weeks and months. Nothing.
Effort is not everything.
I am so glad I had no money, because I really wanted to be better and if I had to learn the lesson later in life I would have tried to “fix” it with high quality gear.