Hello, I am in my fourties and work in a biotech as a scientist. Recently I am thinking about apply machine learning in my work, so I start with python. I am taking " Complete Python Mastery" course. It was pretty easy at the beginning, however, I feel like I can not follow since chapter 5 data structure.
I start to doubt myself: am I too old to learn this? I really appreciate if anybody give me some advice on how to learn to code and so on. Thanks
Programming in general is difficult, and as you know, it’s the challenging moments that force you to really understand concepts, and no, you’re not too old to start, I’ve got friends that started programming who came from completely different backgrounds that had nothing to do with programming or computers, each of them have become software engineers within about a year.
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Well, you need to follow some practice to make it easy for learning Python those steps are listed below:
- Be patient and confident.
- Practice, practice, and practice.
- Focus on basics and logic.
- Concentration and dedication on goal.
Thanks
I’m 50 and Im also a newbie. I’m system engineer honing my skills. From what I’ve read many of the concepts require “fake it til you make it” mentality where many just memorise the syntax and after time those elusive concepts just start to gel.
From my own experience with the exact same course I find some of the concepts hard to “get”. Hoping things will become clearer in time. I’ve just started section 4.
I love Mosh’s style and the pace and the only complaint I have is the lack of exercises throughout to practice the concepts. Some detailed “quizlet” style Q&A would be great.
I would also add that with open source languages and third party libraries being commonplace, language syntax and APIs (interface) change regularly. That can make it difficult to follow training as a recipe when the ingredients are also changing as people make improvements and stuff gets out of date. My best advice is try the tutorials but be ready for failures. Learn how to decipher error messages in the console which means googling things (stackoverflow is your friend even though also be ready for rabbitholes as your problem or configuration might not be EXACTLY as yours), reading the updated python documentation, trying, failing forward and learning. And just when you get a mastery of one language and you are heads down working in that language, along comes a new industry standard or language and you are back to square one. Good news is once you learn one OO language, it is relatively straightforward to learn another. Prospective employers in a saturated job market may not see it that way that want their new hires to hit the ground running in our agile, fast-paced, highly competitive field. But at least you can have some confidence and hope in your learning.
I will say kudos to Mosh for putting this training together. I also feel for him when he said he can’t answer every question and thank goodness for this forum. I am reminded of the Ty company in the 80s and 90s making “Beanie Babies” for example and kudos to the company for employing people, making profits, and making children happy but no idea that it would cause some people to get a mad rush, like traffic jams in front of a McDonalds that was giving them away free. Or the motor scooters and bikes all in the cities with no legislation or rules about where these things are parked or left…
Can you say? print(“Hello modern world”)
But I agree with you, section 4 gets pretty intense with lambdas, maps, and filters, oh my! Lambdas, maps, and filters, oh my! Fail forward my friend. Code up his examples and play with them. Set breakpoints or put in frequent print statements. Add comments before statements to help yourself when you need to refer back to the code. Take breaks too. It’s a lot to learn in one swoop especially when you got that “get a job” voice in the back of your head.
I would also say that none of these training programs ever state: Sure it is fine to be fast but no one gets an award for writing the shortest, most-elegant solution in the shortest amount of time." Use what works for you and make it readable for other users. Hopefully you will get a position where you have code reviews and peers can give you an example of a more elegant or more efficient solutions. Then, you can refactor your code and your experience and toolkit will grow for problem solving…