Learn to code - it's not too late to learn

I had a conversation today with someone, and thought - you know what some of this is worthwhile to a whole lot of people.

If you're thinking about learning to code whether it's to build on HubSpot or build something on any other platform. This is for you.

You will not understand everything up-front, you do not need to understand and know everything. You will hit points where you get errors or something isn’t working the way you expect. That’s normal, you are not dumb, you are capable of learning this, and every developer runs into that on a regular basis. The key is persevering past where you get stuck until you figure out how to fix what’s not working.  It’s okay to take breaks and come back, but make sure to come back.

There are a lot of ways to get unstuck:

  1. Check if your code editor is showing any errors, squiggly underlines under your code etc. Hovering over them will usually state what’s wrong.
  2. Read the developer docs - they are your friend, and they have most of the answers to anything you could want to do, and they will be the best source of truth compared to other resources.
  3. Google it (Seriously, professional programmers are basically professional Googlers, we don’t memorize every little thing, we instead get good at finding the answers we need)
    • Luckily now days there’s also tools like Google Gemini, Perplexity and ChatGPT (generative AI with internet access) you can use those tools to help troubleshoot by asking them questions. Just be aware, the answers they give may not always work, and they may respond based on outdated answers.
  4. Talk to other developers about the problem - If you do so, you need to treat your problem like you’re bringing a car to a mechanic, show your code to them,  explain what you’re trying to do, and what you’re expecting your code to do.  If you’ve tried fixing it, state what you tried. If you do that other developers will be often be happy to help because then it doesn’t feel like you’re just asking them to do your work for you.
Once you solve that problem - especially if you manage to solve it without someone else’s help... well....

The addiction

After solving that problem, you'll feel an awesome feeling. That feeling is why developers become developers, you will feel that repeatedly as you program and as you learn to code. You'll also unfortunately feel that feeling of getting stuck, but you know what? Every time you feel that way then find some success you'll feel even better. Except if it was just that you were missing a semi-colon - that's a programming joke, you'll get it soon enough.
 
Keep learning, keep pushing. You can do this.

If you're looking for a place to start to learn. I'd encourage you to start to learn web development. Here's why:
  • The things you create will be easily accessible to everyone. Nearly every device out there can view a web page, and now days web pages can do as much as native apps.
  • The programming community is generally pretty open and there's tons of resources online for free. Web Developers though, it's not just part of the culture. Open source is huge especially in web development, and who do you think can build a website for teaching how to do web development better than a web developer?
  • There are numerous specializations, you don't need to know it all. Let me also tell you a secret - It's impossible for you to know everything there is to know in web development, that shouldn't scare you though, you can do quite a lot without knowing everything, and the fact there's always something to learn keeps it exciting.

Start with learning HTML, then some CSS, then dip your toes into a little bit of JavaScript. You don't need to become fully proficient, just getting to the point of being able to read a bit, and write a bit, will make you a force to be reckoned with.

To start learning the basics of HTML CSS and JavaScript I recommend a hands-on experience like codeacademy.com (There is free content).

Then, when you want to build a website (something beyond GitHub Pages), for a real business or project - HubSpot's a great platform to learn and it's build around making sites that have a meaningful impact on the business.

Learn to build on HubSpot.

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