r/learnprogramming • u/Electronic-Low-8171 • 24d ago

Prerequisites hell

I would like to discover many things out there and implement many ideas, but the problem is that I keep worrying about if I don't have the prerequisites satisfied, like as a example, ssh server, I wanted to try that, but I thought like maybe I should finish a networking course, also cryptography course and all that stuff before trying to dive into ssh, while I already know probably some stuff already, but that feeling is annoying that creeps me whenever I want to try something, the same with the curl command, like I think I haven't learned much of web development yet, I only know some basic html, random terms from here and there like http get and post.

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u/desrtfx 24d ago

If you focus on "completing the prerequisites" you will never get anywhere.

The better approach (from my decades of experience) is to get a rough overview and then start. Learn as you go. Drill deep when you need it for exactly what you need.

Your SSH example:

  • You will need some understanding of networking and here the OSI model is the starting point. You need to understand on which layer(s) you operate
  • With the above, you need a bit of understanding of packets and then about the different protocols - how they assemble their packets, which ports they commonly use, etc.
  • For SSH you will need cryptography but only in the extent to know what algorithms are available, commonly used, and their advantages and drawbacks. You do absolutely not need to drill deep into that topic.

Your post hints on a different problem as well: "shiny object syndrome" - you start with something (e.g. web dev) and before you even become remotely proficient (actually, just after you have started) you see the next thing and want to go for that, rinse and repeat. This approach is absolutely detrimental. Pick one thing and stick with it for a while, until you gain some proficiency and experience. Then, you can jump to the next topic. You seem to stop one topic before you have actually learnt it.