The Solution

In the previous post, we learned that small chunks in the proper order will make things much easier when learning to become a programmer. And we can achieve this by having answers to the questions:

1. Where do I start?
2. How much do I learn?
3. What next?
4. Back to Question 2

Unfortunately, you don’t have answers to these questions when starting out, so you will have to rely on others that went before you. It’s that "standing on the shoulders of giants" sort of thing. You need to trust that the folks who’ve been software developers for some time are wise beyond their years and have the insight to guide newbies along an easier path than the one they took.

So, for the time being, I will be your giant and provide you with a roadmap that will make it both easy and quick to become a programmer. That said, there are no shortcuts, only smart cuts. What do I mean by that? Each technology stack that you need to know contains a vast amount of knowledge, functionality and features. And it is really easy to get lost in that all this to the point where things become overwhelming. So, eventually you lose interest and die of information overload.

1. Where do I start?

The trick is to start at the right place, which is also the place of the least resistance. This is why it’s best to add new information to things we already know. I call it associative learning. If you learn something completely new with nowhere to attach it, your brain doesn’t really know how to deal with it, and it floats around for a bit before it evaporates.

For example, let’s say I teach you about sucrose. Your brain goes, "huh?" Now I tell you that sucrose is just the fancy word for table sugar. Your brain goes, "duh, I know what that is!" So the word sucrose is not floating around in your brain anymore. It found a place to attach itself to. You now associate sucrose with table sugar.

Only now can I tell you that sucrose is a disaccharide made up of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule. Now you’re probably going to ask me what a disaccharide is. And I will tell you that a disaccharide is a double sugar formed when two monosaccharides are joined via dehydration synthesis. You will also expect me to tell you what dehydration synthesis is. And so we keep on attaching new knowledge to existing knowledge…​

I honestly believe that associative learning combined with repetition and doing is the best way to learn new things.

2. How much do I learn?

How much do you need to know about Microsoft Word to write a letter? Not much really. Now, let’s assume you’re learning the Java programming language? Java is way more than just a programming language, and the language itself is vast. So, where exactly do you start with Java and when do you know enough to move on? These are things you will not know unless you’re guided by a well-designed plan or roadmap.

3. What next?

Once you’re done with learning enough Java (as per the above example), what is the next topic you pick? And why that topic specifically? And again, how much of that topic is enough? Once again, you need guidance if you want to speed things up.

Conclusion

You can literally waste months learning stuff that is of no use at that particular point in time. I don’t you to do that. I want you to follow a plan that tells you in no uncertain terms what to learn, when to stop and what to focus on next. This way you keep on learning and staying interested while at the same time not being overwhelmed by unnecessary stuff.

So, how do I plan to do that? In the next post, we will look at my method.