I’ve been learning Python by myself for about 3 years now and I can say that I know quite a lot but I don’t really feel confident in my own programming skills and always after a while of practicing or reviewing I end up quitting because I feel exactly this.

I don’t know how to explain it, but I really feel like I’m in a cycle repeating the same noob exercises over and over again.

For example, lately I have been practicing a lot PyQt but I really feel that I am wasting time when I don’t learn a new concept or I don’t memorize something and I need to look at my notes to remember how to do it, and also that practicing with online courses, especially with Youtube is often a challenge because the authors do things differently and I get confused by that. And when I want to learn something new the amount of information overwhelms me and I feel tired because of that.

As a Linux user I know that what I just said is stupid, because for example it is impossible to learn all the commands in the world, you just really learn the ones you use most regularly but in programming I feel that for example asking ChatGPT (or any ChatBot) counts as cheating for some reason, I don’t know how to explain it.

I really consider this probably a mentality problem more than a skill problem because honestly even though I know I can I don’t feel sure how to program, many times I even doubt the name of my variables or my functions.

Thanks for reading my silly post!

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Are you building something that you like or want? That can really help you stay motivated, because you’re seeing progress and getting something you want out of the work.

    I’m rarely motivated to learn about programming for programming’s sake, but I do like creating something that fills someone’s need.

    • Xirup@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Mm, makes sense, actually at first I wanted to just create a simple addition game app but then I got sidetracked into trying to create a GUI for Yt-dlp… Thanks for your comment! I should try again the addition game instead of trying something more advanced.

      • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        That sounds great!

        I’d suggest starting small. It’s really easy to take on too much and get bogged down in boring/hard stuff.

        If you’re doing this as a hobby or learning activity, focus on building something small that you’ll be happy with. You can always expand it later.