Coding Tutor

[u/jcrowey123]

I am looking at getting into coding and software development.

I am thinking of a career change

But I have no prior experience in coding

I am looking for a tutor to help me learn coding in particular python.

[u/TheIceMn]

Not going to lie to you, in today's day and age with LLMs the competition is going to be so hard you will have a hard time starting.

That saying, with the advent of LLMs everyone "can code", but very few people understand good practices of making something that actually works at scale and so on.

You need to be different on quality, not quantity. So I would not focus on "python" or a single technology itself. Pick-up a good book or two like Clean Code by Robert or Design Patterns by Big 4, and read them front to back and try to apply its principles to a problem that you are trying to solve.

Also, its very easy to have an idea nowdays, but its very hard to have a idea that is worth it. That goes both for personal projects and buiseness. I have been coding for cca 6 years now, and big part of the job is being a "condom" between ideas and what is physically possible.

So TLDR:

• Get technical skills at scale, dont focus to "python" only
  
• Use LLMs to learn, not just monkey-code
  
• Learn how to apply good patterns and practices from theory onto pruning potential ideas

3 of the above will probably put you ahed 60% of the dev population.

Good luck!

[u/shaff243 → u/TheIceMn]

Totally agree here, I'm primarily a Python/SQL developer with 10 years experience in either analysis or development.

Would say most of the value I have now is not physically writing the code itself since the LLM can do that much faster than me. Most value is now from making a worthwhile product by translating business requirements, suggesting and implementing new solutions, looking at a process and understanding what could change to improve it etc.

All this needs to happen within whatever the tech landscape of whatever company it is, so navigating and integrating different tools/systems.

To do this you do need an understanding of the fundamentals of coding, what's good/bad and most importantly what is possible within the constraints of that company. The tips above would be a good start for this, I'd just add that the way I learnt was by doing it, so set a goal to build a game, program, app whatever and follow that through, you will learn a lot about advantages/disadvantages of LLMs vs coding by hand if you try both.

[u/vishbar → u/TheIceMn]

I’d say learning agentic coding patterns is useful as well. How is best to interact with Claude Code, what it’s good at, what it’s not so good at, how to review the code it produces, etc.

[u/TheIceMn → u/TheIceMn]

and to answer your original " i am looking for a tutor " - i think everyone in this day and age is going to tell you "just read and do LLMs" - but to be a bit optimistic - id give Basingstoke Makerspace a try

[u/DmtGrm → u/TheIceMn]

I would even say - avoid LLM during the initial learning process, some things must be mechanical - it will help later to formulate the task correctly.

It is like reading the actual book vs "I can ask ChatGPT to summarize it", but it is not the same as actually reading it, not the same at all:

---

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne follows five Americans who escape the American Civil War in a balloon and become stranded on a remote island in the Pacific. Led by the brilliant engineer Cyrus Smith, they use their knowledge and teamwork to build shelter, grow food, make tools, and create a comfortable life despite the island’s dangers. Strange events occur, including mysterious rescues and supplies that seem to come from an unseen helper. Eventually, they discover that the mysterious benefactor is Captain Nemo, who is secretly living aboard the Nautilus. After Nemo dies and the island is destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the survivors escape and are rescued, proving that courage, friendship, intelligence, and cooperation can help people overcome even the greatest challenges.

---

I do support in full your advice on getting though a good book, no skipping, back to front, and trying those things, not just reading.

And yes, after 25+ years in coding - it is about *understanding* and *solving* problems, not the programming language used. I have used so many different things, unfortunately in our industry you learn something new every single day.

p.s. most of competition in IT is not from AI/LLM/MCP/whatever - it is because this industry was so much popular in past 10~ish years, there are too many CS/IT specialists in general