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My friend told me to start with C++ because it's 'real programming' and I almost quit | Coding For Beginners - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals

shane_wilson•5mo ago

My friend told me to start with C++ because it's 'real programming' and I almost quit

He said learning Python first would build bad habits and that C++ forces you to understand memory. After two months of fighting with pointers and compilation errors, I switched to a Python course and built a simple web scraper in a weekend. Has anyone else been given advice that made starting way harder than it needed to be?

4 comments

4 Comments

casey3422mo ago

Took me back to when I tried learning guitar from a book that insisted on music theory before playing a single chord. Spent weeks on scales and notation until my buddy just showed me three power chords and said "now play a song." Same thing with C++ honestly - the people pushing it are usually already good at it and forgot what it's like to start from zero. Python lets you FEEL like a programmer right away and that feeling keeps you going. I'd rather have someone actually building stuff in Python than giving up on coding completely because of some elitist garbage about "real programming.

colegarcia5mo ago

Oh man, that advice is the worst! It's like telling someone to learn to drive in a manual transmission race car before they can even get to the grocery store. I had a similar friend who insisted I start with assembly language "to really get it." I spent a week just trying to make the screen say "hello" and felt like a total failure. Starting with something that lets you actually make things is so much better for keeping you from giving up. That gatekeeping mindset does way more harm than good. Let people enjoy the win of building something first!

angela7285mo ago

Is it really gatekeeping or just bad advice? Emma_lee22 had the right idea starting with a project.

emma_lee225mo ago

What finally clicked for you? I got so stuck trying to learn from those dense theory books. Then I just started making a dumb little website for my band, and figuring out each piece as I needed it. Actually building something useless was the only way it made sense.