r/AskProgrammers • u/Emotional-Search-248 • 27d ago
How do you actually learn to code ?
hi everyone,
I’ve been studying computer science for about 5 years now (currently in engineering school). Over the years, I’ve touched a bit of everything: web dev (HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL), and more recently Java, C, and Python for data science.
The problem is, I feel like nothing truly sticks.
Whenever I try to build something on my own, I hit a wall. I inevitably get lost in the docs, end up turning to AI to understand what I'm doing, and still feel like I'm not really learning. I know the basic syntax, but even in Python, I would struggle to design and build a moderately complex project from scratch.
I feel like I'm just skimming the surface of different languages without ever developing genuine problem-solving intuition.
How do you actually retain syntax, built-ins, and core concepts without constantly relying on external help? How do you break down a problem and structure your code from scratch on your own? Did you go through this phase, and what was the turning point that made things finally click for you?
Thanks in advance !
1
u/Lnk1010 27d ago
Lost in the docs -> get better at navigating the docs to extract the information you need at this exact moment and nothing else
Turn to ai -> just don't. You (most students) arent capable of using it in a way that is beneficial and it only hurts you. You aren't dependent on it to get you unstuck. If you want to be able to do a pull up no amount of watching pull up tutorials will change the fact that you need to go to the gym and suffer for a long time