maddie

PLAYING MONSTER HUNTER ON PSP

Photo Credit: Reddit thread

WRITING CODE IN HTML

ALL MY HOURS OF TRAINING PAYING OFF

I think I learn/memorize programming a lot better when I understand why the language is written that way. Like, I remember asking someone a few days ago if src stood for 'source' and they just shrugged.

"It's just what you type," was the answer.

Obviously, I googled it afterwards, but even then I saw that most teaching websites don't actually list out or explain what you're actually typing within the elements. Just an expected brute force memorization to it all.¹

I know a lot of people told me that I don't need to understand everything when programming--certainly some of my friends would laugh and say 'beats me' when asked how their code works--but I feel like it's a lot easier this way? Like, understandably, it's obvious to me that this part needs an href since it's a hypertext reference for an anchor, but then, why is it called an anchor?

If I understand it, I'll retain it immediately. If not, I'll forever be asking why it's called an anchor.

_{I do wonder if this 'insistence' on understanding everything will bite me in the ass though.}

1. that being said, there's a possibility I'm just missing critical information since I'm trying to self-teach without knowing CS or something

I think I severely stunted my learning for multiple days by trying to understand everything. Often times, a tutorial will just present you with a new element and tell you this is how it's done, and then I'll try and look the entire thing up to try and 'properly' wrap my head around it with all its silly intricacies.

Don't.

Much like how the default advice for people trying to write a story is that they shouldn't spend months studying the latest creative writing book or try and read Save The Cat! to find the next best Hollywood formula and instead they should just write and finish a story and expand their media literacy outside of IMDB's top 100, this is the same.

I think I was simply too caught up with old study habits. I don't even know why I approached this as an exam and tried to memorize everything from the beginning. When I was young, there was a famous story that went around trying to counteract the Asian rote learning education style that basically went:

Albert Einstein¹ was confronted and laughed at by another mathematician. The mathematician says, "Why do you always look up reference books, Einstein! Shouldn't a smart man like you have all that memorized by now?" And Einstein's reply was, "I don't need to memorize them precisely because they're written in books. I can free my mind to understand other things."

Now that I think back, @NireBryce (thank you for all your help) even told me I was too focused on the specific details of language and understanding comes naturally through execution. It's not that I wasn't listening, it's that I forgot about this piece of advice after I went to bed that night.

Also I highly recommend you don't learn coding while listening to Satori by Etienne Jaumet. I didn't understand why I was so stressed until I realized the music sounded like a countdown for a timebomb and I kept feeling like I was stuck in my uni finals. Jesus Christ.

GOOD SONG THOUGH.

1. the person in these stories is always Albert Einstein or some other genius

I think I learn/memorize programming a lot better when I understand why the language is written that way. Like, I remember asking someone a few days ago if src stood for 'source' and they just shrugged.

"It's just what you type," was the answer.

Obviously, I googled it afterwards, but even then I saw that most teaching websites don't actually list out or explain what you're actually typing within the elements. Just an expected brute force memorization to it all.¹

I know a lot of people told me that I don't need to understand everything when programming--certainly some of my friends would laugh and say 'beats me' when asked how their code works--but I feel like it's a lot easier this way? Like, understandably, it's obvious to me that this part needs an href since it's a hypertext reference for an anchor, but then, why is it called an anchor?

If I understand it, I'll retain it immediately. If not, I'll forever be asking why it's called an anchor.

_{I do wonder if this 'insistence' on understanding everything will bite me in the ass though.}

1. that being said, there's a possibility I'm just missing critical information since I'm trying to self-teach without knowing CS or something

"Slut era," I whisper to myself before taking coding lessons.

I head into a party. I say things like, "Haha, I'd love to get passed around like a parameter in a function. Wink wink." Nobody laughs. Someone steals my glasses and throws it into the bowl of punch.

I go home sober and boot up Quake.