A chat with my sister's kid about learning to code really got to me

She's 14 and told me she tried to start with Python but gave up after two days because the first tutorial had her printing 'Hello World' and then immediately jumped into something called 'list comprehensions'. I said maybe she should try something more visual first, like Scratch, but she said that felt like a baby's toy and she wanted to do 'real' coding. Why do so many beginner resources skip the fun part of making stuff you can see?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_jones14d ago

Yeah, that's why I always tell people to start with simple games... you can see results right away.

the_wyatt14d ago

Totally agree with you @joel_jones. I read an article that said the same thing, that quick wins keep you from getting bored. Starting small just makes sense.

evakelly14d ago

Guess @the_wyatt read the same article I did.