Why is it difficult to learn programming?

What I should be doing today, is working on a guided project, so I can finish the course and move on with my life. What I intend to do instead, is to write this blog post, not only trying to vent, but also breathing some life into my website, that is content starved at the minute. I also wanted to try how’s keyboard on my new laptop, so here we are. Let’s begin at the beginning.

Like for so many millennials, video games were very appealing growing up. I had many different phases, wanting to be many different occupations. You see, nobody told me you don’t really have a choice, but… Let’s keep this one lighthearted, at least for now. Because I liked the video games, I wanted to create video games, naturally. And so began my interest in programming.

How does education help you achieve this aspiration that many believe is the “correct” or “real” way to get a job? (You know, engineering as opposed to gender studies.) The short answer is, it doesn’t. It’s quite strange, because you would have thought as we live in a world where just about anything is powered by some sort of software, people should be educated as to what the software does as what-not. Just like trying to get a driving licence you have to know a bit about maintenance, and different types of engines, etc. Oh, wait, they scrapped that part of the test, never mind then.

Okay, but education must do something, right? What is it? Let’s assume basic stuff - like reading, writing, etc. I can’t speak for kids today, but the mandatory educations that finishes when you’re 15 does absolutely nothing for you what-so-ever. Then you go to a “high school”. (That would be the American equivalent, obviously the structure of education is different where I grew up.) High school come in three flavours.

I was deemed “too smart” to go to a trade school. To be fair, I didn’t want to anyway. So, naturally, as a naive kid, I chose the last option on the list above, with specialization in computer networks. I am happy to report that by and large, the curriculum was broad, giving us a taste of many different aspects of IT. Besides the flagship computer networks course, we also had programming (not mentioning HTML in a separate course). So for the first time in my life, the formal education could teach me something I wanted to learn. (I’m being a little bit unfair here, but as they say, life’s not fair.) Did I learn anything?

No. It’s as simple as that. Dragging and dropping form elements in Visual Studio and then writing a little bit of logic in C#, to make a really stupid calculator, does not help anybody learn anything. And that’s it. Flagship IT high school doing its best, folks. I can see why the programmers of old, such as John Carmack, became so good. As there was no formal training for programmer, yes, it was a hard thing to get into, but they weren’t misled by the education system that dragging and dropping UI elements in a nightmarish Visual Studio is the way to go. They just had to sit down and “invent the wheel”. What folks don’t tell you nowadays is that the process of “inventing the wheel” is crucial to your learning, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

13 years in education, no coding skills what-so-ever. Can uni save me? I enrolled in a CS degree program, where I was supposed to learn all sorts of IT related things. In hindsight, maybe I should have chosen applied mathematics, but I chose “generic CS”, as at that time I though programming was more important than theoretical math, and “generic CS” curriculum had much more programming in it. So, did I learn to program in uni? No, not really.

The theoretical part of it was just fine (as far as I can tell), but when it comes to real programming, you’re on your own. While it’s not as bad as using proprietary technology to do stupid stuff, we just pretty much did the stupid stuff closer to the metal. My final project in Programming I was a CLI sports tracker (written in C), that allowed a user to input activities with their attributes (how long was the activity, how many calories burnt, etc.) and the app would store them in a file and also could run some sort of report. Now, do you think that at the very least we calculated the calories burnt based on us knowing how much this activity burns and the length of the activity? No, the user had to input all the fields and the reporting was similarly simplistic. What is my problem with this? After all, this was the beginning of the curriculum, so simple/naive programs are to be expected.

It didn’t teach us anything. The point of the project was to use dynamic memory allocation, but I have no idea how the code I wrote worked. In fact, I had no idea how pointers work. Yes, yes, I of course knew that pointer is a…, you know pointer - it’s an address that points to a different part of the memory. Like many people, I was afraid of pointers. On one hand, I should be fair a declare I probably wasn’t able to learn anything at the time, because of my personal life, but on the other hand, what’s the point of education, if they let you not learn and continue the curriculum? That might have been harsh and possibly unjustified (as I believe they simply didn’t explain it well enough), but at least I would know this is not the way and could do something. Say, I could just figure the pointers out, like my colleagues. Or, maybe I could find a job. Instead, I was allowed to waste everyone’s time in this institution, including mine.

We were also introduced to various popular languages, such as JAVA, C#, C++ and Python (can I list SQL here?). All I remember from JAVA, is that you have to create interfaces to provide a way of calling, ehm, classes? Look, I’m not sure, OK? The fact is, Programming I at least made us wrote a simple program that did something. In JAVA we were just learning the syntax of the language. I would like to note, that I should have seen a problem, when I was failing Python classes. We were told Python is easy to write in and years later after I picked up programming again and wrote some (a lot of) Python, I have to say it is quite easy and I’m ashamed of my past self that I struggled. I said above, there were circumstances interfering with my ability to learn, so I’m not trying to punish my past self, it’s literally me after all. It’s just, if a person can’t figure out how classes work in Python, something is wrong - start smaller or consider giving up.

What is my biggest gripe with all of the formal school education I have described so far? Never ever did we learn anything of any use. Do you know why I failed SQL class? Because I wasn’t able to formulate a complicated SQL query, that was designed to be hard. Sure, there’s some value in leet code, but at the end of the day, we use SQL to talk to a database. That’s it, you don’t need to be formulating these convoluted queries to build useful software. Databases are used for, you know, just about anything you want to store. So why didn’t we cover this in any of the programming classes? Like, the sports tracked, for example. IIRC, in our Python class we were supposed to create a project in Djago, so maybe a little bit of real skill education was hiding there, but…

Django is a tool for the developer to not bother with stuff like talking to a database. So if I’m studying to be a SW engineer, I have to study the actual thing, not somebody else’s implementation. Because, as a SW engineer, I am supposed to be able to fix the implementation, not be able to just merely use a piece of software. All in all, none of my formal education gave me any solid foundation for my programming aspirations. I can’t blame the institutions fully, as I am aware of my situation back then, but even then, if the institution sees me struggling and doesn’t do anything, why do we need it?

Now, some of you will say something like: “In the real world you have no one looking out for you, get used to it, kid.” To which I can only reply: “Why would I seek this institution, if it provides the same environment as the real world?” The problem is, if you don’t get it, I can’t convince you. There’s an XKCD quote that I find appropriate:

So, people who go with interpretation #3 notice immediately that the plane cannot move and keep trying to condescendingly explain to the #2 crowd that nothing they say changes the basic facts of the problem. The #2 crowd is busy explaining to the #3 crowd that planes aren’t driven by their wheels. Of course, this being the internet, there’s also a #4 crowd loudly arguing that even if the plane was able to move, it couldn’t have been what hit the Pentagon.

At any rate, for the longest time I’ve just forgot about programming and just followed the technical advances. I also thought that over time, programming would be simpler, as the smart programmers would create tools for, you know - me, that wouldn’t be as hard to use. For example, I thought as more time passes, it will be easier to create video games in Unreal Engine, as Epic people are working on it for decades, wait, this is not the best example. Unity is proudly stating “We democratized the gamedev industry.” [citation not needed] Let me ask you, is it any simpler (for a non-programmer) to create video games in Unity in 2025 than it was ever before? Even if you say yes, how about Unity deciding that this democratization needs to extract more money from its users, do you support that? All I know is that real programmers, creating real games (e.g. MegaCrit and their Slay the Spire) are capable of not using these “democratizing tools” and when you try to change to terms of service, forcing them to pay you more money, they will take their real programming skills and use different tools, because they can do that by nature of being real programmers. And good for them, this is a free market adjustment I can get behind. So even if building games is simpler then it was today, due to modern tools, you might still not want to use them, because they might be an overkill for your use case (mainly meaning they’re so complicated that even simple projects are complicated using those tools), they might be too expensive, they might be unstable (be it for state of the software reasons or governance reasons) and most importantly, without the underlying skill, they are too difficult for you. Period.

How did I end up finally learning some real programming? I had a business idea that required an app. I was sure, with all these programmers “democratizing” various software disciplines, that I can just write the app myself. Oh boy, how wrong was I. I decided to use Flutter, as I wanted the app to be cross-platform. I struggled to install it, as the instructions on the website were out of date. When I finally had the development environment ready, I opened the example project and there it was. A system so convoluted, that I didn’t know how to make a simple change, such as adding a second button. At that time, I thought I am just too stupid and a “real” programmer would have no problems. What did I think when I even struggle installing it?

Well, guess what. No matter how good of a programmer you are, if the instructions you’re supposed to follow are wrong, you can’t follow them. I was to my great relief when I was watching Mr. Zozin, where he was complaining just about this. The website simply didn’t provide clear instructions. So that’s one of the reasons why programming is hard. Even simple things, like getting the framework into your development environment is a herculean task, for all outdated information and the hidden gotchas. Next, again, I might be stupid (I’m not), but the modern systems, such as Flutter, are overcomplicated. Again, “real” programmers will have no problem, because a) they can just figure it out or b) they can use a different tool or c) they can develop their own bespoke solution. But that was always the case for the “real” programmer. What help does regular Joe get? With the passage of time, less and less help, not more and more. Again, if it’s not obvious to you, I probably can’t explain it. For example, when UK wanted EU immigrants to register under the Settlement Scheme, instead of making the immigrant go places or send paperwork, they created an app for that. And when I say an app, I mean an Android app. That’s correct, the only way to register was to use an Android phone. [I’m too lazy to find sources - trust me, bro] So if the UK government can’t even build a multi-platform app, what shot do I have, using Flutter?

The unfortunate reality is, if you want to program, you have to become a “real” programmer. With my failure above in mind, I began to wonder what can I learn to be able to one day deliver my idea. Did you notice? This is one of the most important things - clear motivation. With a clear goal in mind, I could do something to move towards it. There is a question of how do I choose what is the best way without knowing enough to determine what is the best way. If you struggle with this question, I can answer that one easily. Don’t worry about the best way. First of all, it’s not clear if there is a best way. Then, specifically for programming, you’re tied to legacy systems, so you probably have to learn JavaScipt, despite it’s a toy scripting language, but the only one interpreted by the browsers. Then finally, the ability to determine the best way you can only acquire by having lots of experience. Even if you have a perfect mentor (say you travelled in time to teach yourself to code), you would be learning in the best possible way, but you would only appreciate it at the very end of the journey. You just can’t know the best way, START NOW.

Just as my advice goes, I started somewhere. I completed the Jad Jourbran’s JavaScript course. While it gave me a good foundation of the front end, I had no idea, what’s going on on the back end. I ended up enrolling in boot.dev. While I think the JS course was absolutely smashing (boot.dev recently released their own revised JS course, that should be on par with the Jad Joubran’s one), boot.dev is a different story. Now, I’m not here today to review any online resource. Today, I’m just sharing some of my insights from my journey of learning the “real” programming. Why did I choose boot.dev? One of the courses on their curriculum is called: “Learn HTTP servers”. That’s what I wanted. I felt I could (in theory) build a front end, but that was it. As of now, I still didn’t get there - I got stuck on the previous course: “Build a Blog Aggregator”. But you know what? All my hard work paid off. On Wednesday 26th February 2025, for the first time in my life, I talked to a database in Go programming language. No silly app that doesn’t actually do anything useful, but an extremely useful thing.

Obviously, not only I am not finished with the project, but I expect I will need much more practice than boot.dev affords to be efficacious. But I did learn something real, something that no one can take away from me. It just feels so good that I can do that now. I did have to overcome serious obstacles. When I hit a wall in one of the courses, I had to hire a Pakistani tutor to watch me code. When I hit the wall in the “Build a Blog Aggregator” project, I again, had to ask a friend to help me. But now it’s done. Once you finally do it, the thing that was once scary is just a thing. Like pointers.

So, did we find the answer to the question: Why is it difficult to learn programming? People more accomplished than I am can tell you that programming is too convoluted nowadays. [I’m not gonna link to anything specific, but look up Casey Muratori or Jonathan Blow.] And while I am no “education expert”, I will say that one of the reasons it’s difficult, is because no one (person or institution) is helping you. I was in education for 16 years (gosh, that’s like, over half my life), a lot of which was specifically geared towards IT/programming and yet doing some “random” online courses educated me more than all my school attendance combined. During my inauguration, the rector of my university said: “If a student decides to not learn anything, they will succeed. If they decide to learn something, nobody can prevent them.” Never mind you’re going to school, or god-forbid university, to get the educated. At the end of the day, nobody cares. Don’t get fooled into thinking school/university will help you. If you want to achieve anything, you have to help yourself.

That sounds a bit like boomer talk, so let me also say this. I’m not saying you have to do everything by yourself with no help what-so-ever. I’m saying, people for some reason think they will study, get degrees/accreditations/diplomas/what-ever-pieces-of-paper and magically that will afford them a job or something (good). I thought this, that’s why I might sound butt hurt. I thought school/uni will just teach me what I need to have a good job or something (good).

Sorry, I got side-tracked. I’m trying to say, that you can only get effective help, if you know what you want. I was able to hire a tutor to help me (he just watched me, as silly as it sounds, I just needed emotional support) because I had a clear vision, I was working on a clear goal and I was able to say: “This is what I’m struggling with, are you interested in helping me?” If I didn’t have my own path tuned for … whatever I decided is important …, trying to get a tutor would be very difficult. I would probably end up just writing JavaScript and getting miserable with Node.js, because if you looked, that’s what the tutors are mostly offering. Also, I would spend an absolute fortune, as I would probably get a lot of help from my tutor. So I’m not saying don’t get help. If you find yourself hitting a wall repeatedly, by all means, don’t give up and ask for help. Just be aware that places ostensibly designed to help you, might not care, so don’t rely on them.

You might ask, am I a “real” programmer yet? Let me quote my friend’s response to me saying I still can’t code: “You’re on the cusp of it, inside of you there is a coder fighting to get out” And you know what, that language gives you a good idea of how I feel. It’s a bit like the scene at the end of Pulp Fiction, where Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) gives all his money to the robbers and having a gun tells them he’s not sure where’s God and who’s good and who’s bad guy, but he’s really trying hard. That is how I feel. Not knowing much, but trying to do the right thing.

Finally, it seems the keyboard on my laptop is just fine. Good news. I hope I will post again before getting another laptop. I am also relived that the pipeline for deploying this website is still working great. (Before I started working on this, I needed the repo and before this coming push, I pushed some formatting changes.) And you know what, I am proud of it. At least I didn’t waste time on WordPress, that’s a bloated, horrifying mess, with vendor lock-in. Guess who wasted time migrating from WordPress to Hugo? I would laugh, but Lane is successful, and I’m not. Here’s another thing. I hit the nail on the head with the choice of technology (Hugo in this case). Does it make me anymore successful? No. But I digress.

As my Italian friends say, take it easy. And until next time, take care of yourself.