How Difficult Is It To Learn Python?

Learning Python can be easy

Python is easy to learn, so long as you do a few things right…

This advice applies to every programming language out there and since I’ve programmed professionally with over a dozen languages and dozens of related technologies, I promise this works.

1. Start with an impossibly simple tutorial

2. Be excited to do the tutorial

3. Write every line of code yourself

4. Run the software repeatedly as you make changes

5. Finish the tutorial

6. Celebrate!

Let’s look at this step by step shall we?

Start with an impossibly simple tutorial.

That is to say, go with the most beginner level thing you can.

Simple things are easier to do and easier to build momentum doing. That is a key point in your learning. You need momentum.

Be excited to do the tutorial.

If you aren’t excited you won’t do it. If you don’t do the work, you won’t learn. So, be excited to do the tutorial!

Write every line of code yourself.

Learning to code is about 80% typing and 20% thinking. Typing in the code is how you really learn to code. Once you have enough of the patterns under your fingers, it all is much easier to think about.

I’ve never met someone who coded 100% in their brain. It all happens once they are able to type out what they are thinking and you only gain that skill by typing out the code yourself. No copy paste. Just type over and over again until it “clicks”.

Run the software repeatedly as you make changes.

Look the deal is this. Bugs are going to happen. You will have typos. So, run and re-run the program as you make changes just to see what happens. This builds the skill of debugging your code which is where 80% of your career will be spent anyway.

Finish the tutorial.

This should be obvious, but it isn’t. In my estimation over half of all people who start a course or tutorial never finish. The ones who do have a huge advantage over the rest. People who finish courses learn more and do more with their skills.

The habit of just finishing a tutorial or course will take you further than most any skill you learn in a course will!

Celebrate!

This is not a step you can skip. In fact, I’d say it is vital to your success. We have a basic human need to celebrate our victories. Otherwise, they don’t feel like victories and they lose their meaning.

So, when you finish the tutorial, go out and celebrate! Buy yourself a nice dinner or whatever is reasonable for you.

Marking your success with a reward will make you want to go out and find more success. Ultimately, if you do this approach enough times, you’ll find success learning Python.

This is the approach I teach students who take my courses and they have a lot of success with it.

Best of luck on your python programming journey, you can do it!

-Brian