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Now that you have a solid foundation 2

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of JavaScript, I want to talk a little bit 3

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about the actual process of learning how to code 4

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and give you some motivation. 5

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I think this is an important aspect of a course like this, 6

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but everyone else simply seems to overlook this topic 7

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for some reason. 8

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So let me share my advice on how you should learn to code 9

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as a complete beginner in this video. 10

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And to make this a bit more fun, 11

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I will start by telling you how to fail 12

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at learning how to code. 13

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And to do that, meet John. 14

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So John has been learning how to code for some time now, 15

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but he is failing miserably. 16

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He's just not going anywhere. 17

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I guess, he is just not receiving the right advice. 18

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So let's see what John is doing wrong so that you can learn 19

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from his mistakes and learn how to code in no time. 20

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So the first mistake that John made 21

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was that he didn't have a clear goal at the beginning 22

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of his learning journey. 23

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He simply started by watching some courses 24

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and reading some tutorials, 25

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but he would just blindly copy the code 26

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without caring how it works. 27

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Even worse, Sometimes he would just copy and paste code 28

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from tutorials or sites like Stack Overflow. 29

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While learning, he didn't reinforce what he was learning 30

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in the courses and tutorials by doing small challenges 31

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or taking notes. 32

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He also didn't practice coding outside of the courses 33

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and he didn't come up with his own project ideas 34

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to improve his skills. 35

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Then whenever he did code a bit, 36

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John would quickly became frustrated whenever his code 37

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was not perfectly clean or efficient. 38

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John also lost motivation pretty quickly 39

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because he thought he could never know enough. 40

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He could never know all there is to know 41

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and this is a really big mistake. 42

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Also, he was just always learning in isolation 43

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without sharing his process. 44

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Finally, after finishing a couple of courses, 45

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he thought he was now a web developer 46

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and could start applying to jobs, 47

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but no one would take him because recruiters soon found out 48

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that he couldn't even build a simple app on his own. 49

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So that's a long list of mistakes, 50

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but it's not too late for John. 51

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We can fix all these mistakes, right? 52

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So let me show you how. 53

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So the first mistake is relatively easy to fix. 54

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What you need to do is to set a goal for yourself. 55

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Think about this and actually write it down 56

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on a paper or something, make this goal specific, 57

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measurable, realistic, and time-based. 58

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For example, your goal might be, 59

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I want to become a front-end web developer within one year. 60

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From there, you can then develop a plan on how to get there. 61

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It also helps to know exactly why you are learning to code. 62

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For example, are you trying to switch careers 63

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or do you want to find a better job 64

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or are you just starting a new hobby? 65

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Whatever it is, it's important to be aware of the reason 66

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why you're doing this, 67

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because this will help you stay motivated 68

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when learning becomes more and more difficult. 69

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To stay motivated, it's also great to imagine a big project 70

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that you want to be able to build 71

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by the end of your learning journey. 72

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This has always helped me tremendously. 73

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With this project in mind, 74

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you just need to research the technologies 75

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that you need to learn and then learn them one by one, 76

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step by step in a calm way. 77

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Next up, instead of simply copying code 78

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from a course or tutorial, 79

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always make sure that you really understand the codes 80

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that you're learning and typing into your editor. 81

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Don't move on if you don't understand. 82

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Also, always actually type code. 83

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Don't just copy and pasted from a tutorial 84

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or a site like Stack Overflow. 85

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This way, you're training your brain 86

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to remember the syntax letter. 87

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Reinforcing is one of the most 88

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important learning techniques. 89

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It means that after you learn something new, 90

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like a new JavaScript feature or a concept, 91

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you use it immediately to make it really stick 92

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in your brain. 93

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You can do this by taking notes and by challenging yourself 94

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with small coding exercises and challenges. 95

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For example, let's say you just watched a lecture 96

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about functions. 97

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So now you know what functions are 98

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and you saw some examples. 99

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But now as a next step, you need to reinforce this knowledge 100

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by writing a function for your own personal environment. 101

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For example, you might need to calculate the average 102

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of your university grades, 103

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or you might need to convert recipe ingredients 104

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from ounces to grams while cooking. 105

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So just write a function that does this task for you 106

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and have some fun with it. 107

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Coming up with your own ideas like this and solving them, 108

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will absolutely boost your confidence 109

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in your programming skills 110

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and really take your time with this. 111

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There's absolutely no need to complete any course 112

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as fast as possible, all right? 113

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Now it's absolutely normal that in the beginning, 114

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it's hard to come up with your own challenges. 115

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That's why I included countless coding challenges 116

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in this course for you. 117

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You can also use a special challenge platform 118

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like codewars.com, 119

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where you can find thousands of coding challenges 120

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for different skill levels for free. 121

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I have actually solved some of Codewars challenges 122

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in real life with some students and I can tell you, 123

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it's a ton of fun and really helpful. 124

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One of John's biggest mistakes was to not practice coding 125

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outside of the course environment. 126

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But practicing on your own, 127

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is the single most important thing that you have to do. 128

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And I can't stress this enough, okay? 129

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Coding your own projects without any course guiding you 130

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is really not optional. 131

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If you just follow courses and don't code on your own, 132

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you will never ever be able to write programs on your own. 133

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So come up with your own project ideas, 134

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no matter how small or big and just build them, 135

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or you can copy parts of popular sites or applications. 136

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No matter what you do, really challenge yourself, 137

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make it difficult and grow by overcoming obstacles. 138

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And then now it's scary to leave the comfortable environment 139

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of a course where you just have to follow the teacher 140

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because you will fail and you will make mistakes, 141

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and it will be difficult to code on your own. 142

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But getting out of our comfort zone, 143

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is the only way we grow. 144

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So don't be stuck in tutorial hell, 145

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which is exactly the state of not being able 146

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to leave tutorials. 147

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There is more about this whole journey 148

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at the end of this lecture. 149

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Now, when you practice, you should never become frustrated 150

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with the quality of your code. 151

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Do not get stuck by trying to write a perfect code, 152

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which is really clean or really efficient. 153

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So none of that matters in the beginning. 154

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You're still learning. 155

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So just write as much code as you can, 156

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no matter the quality. 157

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Really, clean and efficient code will come with time, 158

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all right? 159

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It's just natural progress. 160

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Also, you can always come back and refactor 161

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and improve code later if you want to. 162

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Another important piece of advice I can give you 163

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and I actually give it to myself from time to time, 164

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is to embrace the fact that you will never know everything 165

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there is to know in web development. 166

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Web development is this huge, huge field. 167

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And so it's completely normal and acceptable 168

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that you will never know everything about web development. 169

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So don't put too much weight on your shoulders 170

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and create too many expectations. 171

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So in fact, the best developers and teachers 172

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have no problem in admitting 173

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that they do not know everything 174

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like the legendary Kyle Simpson, 175

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who admits that even after 20 years, 176

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it's still a struggle to make his code work 177

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and understand it the next day. 178

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So do not lose motivation if you feel the same way. 179

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Also, do not compare yourself to top developers 180

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who do know a lot more than you, 181

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because, of course, they do. 182

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Many of them have been at this for over 10 years 183

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or maybe even 20 years, 184

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but nobody was born an expert and even experts 185

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are still learning all the time. 186

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Now here, it's actually pretty important 187

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that you have a well-defined goal for yourself, 188

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because if you do, 189

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you can just focus on what you need to learn 190

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in order to achieve that goal. 191

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Everything else is unnecessary, it's just nice. 192

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For example, if you don't need a backend in your app, 193

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then you don't need to learn Node.js or PHP, okay? 194

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The next mistake that is hopefully easy to fix, 195

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is to not learn in isolation. 196

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One great way to do that is to learn together 197

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with other people, no matter if in person or online. 198

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Whenever you learn something new, 199

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explain it to them because explaining things, 200

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forces you to really understand them first 201

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and repeating a concept will then really 202

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make it stick in your brain. 203

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That's why many people say that the best way of learning 204

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is to teach and I actually share that opinion too. 205

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Another great technique that many people like, 206

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is to share your goals publicly, 207

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for example, on a social network, 208

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to make yourself accountable. 209

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You can also share your progress on social media 210

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to motivate yourself and others. 211

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For example, on Twitter, 212

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there are some popular hashtags that people use, 213

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like #100DaysOfCode, #CodeNewbie, and #weddev. 214

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If you use these, you'll get feedback 215

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and a boost of motivation from other people 216

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that are on the same journey of learning to code. 217

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It's a really nice and friendly community, 218

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at least on Twitter, which is what I know and use. 219

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So for sure, you should try it out. 220

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And finally, the absolute biggest mistake that John made 221

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was that, after he went through a couple 222

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of web development courses, 223

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he thought that he was now a web developer, 224

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ready to take a job. 225

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Now, this is probably the biggest misconception 226

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that people have. 227

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Just take a couple of courses and you're done, 228

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but no, that is just not how it works. 229

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So I'm sorry to bring you the bad news, 230

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but courses like this one can only take you so far. 231

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They will give you an amazing foundation, of course, 232

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but they're just the beginning of your journey. 233

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You need everything else that we just talked 234

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about in this lecture in order to become 235

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a successful web developer. 236

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So let's talk a little bit more about this 237

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and the journey of actually becoming a job-ready developer. 238

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So here is a very true graph that shows you 239

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how your confidence in your skills 240

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changes as you become more and more competent 241

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as a web developer. 242

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And this is useful because it allows us to plan a strategy 243

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for your learning journey. 244

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So when you start, you are in the, 245

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everything is awesome phase. 246

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You are studying one or more or tutorials, 247

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understanding how the code works 248

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and taking a lot of challenges 249

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just like I mentioned earlier. 250

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Now you're not really competent yet, 251

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but are starting to get confident 252

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and are pumped to keep going. 253

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So this is probably where you are right now 254

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and will be throughout this course 255

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or any other course that you take. 256

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But then as you start practicing on your own, 257

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you reach the cliff of confusion. 258

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Here you realize that coding might be a lot harder 259

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than you thought when you no longer can just follow a course 260

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with a predefined path. 261

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So your confidence is gonna start to drop a little bit 262

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and you might realize you can't build anything meaningful 263

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on your own yet. 264

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But don't lose motivation here, 265

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just keep writing lots and lots of code on your own 266

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no matter how much time you need to spend fixing bugs 267

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and searching for solution. 268

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It's all part of the journey and it's still gonna be fun. 269

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Slowly, you will become better at writing code, 270

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so you will become more competent, 271

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but your confidence might drop even further 272

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because now you start to realize just how much more 273

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you will need to practice until it can build a real 274

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application on your own. 275

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You are now in the so-called pit of despair, but believe me, 276

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it's not as bad as it sounds. 277

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You might start to feel lost, 278

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but a great solution for this is to start learning 279

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with other people like other beginners 280

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or even other developers who might mentor 281

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and help you along the way. 282

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To leave the pit of despair, 283

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you must keep challenging yourself. 284

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You cannot stop here, okay? 285

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So keep building bigger and bigger projects, 286

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run into lots of problems and keep fixing them. 287

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You really need to have this mindset of fixing problems 288

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in order to become a web developer. 289

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It's what we do all day long basically. 290

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At this point, it's also important to keep in mind 291

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that learning how to code is a really hard thing to do. 292

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So don't beat yourself up for finding it too difficult 293

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and for being stuck all the time. 294

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It is difficult indeed, but it's gonna be worth it. 295

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And trust me, we've all been in that place 296

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and everyone who successfully works in the industry today, 297

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just start out the same as you right now. 298

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So really, congratulations for even starting this path. 299

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It's already a great achievement in itself. 300

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Now you just need to continue building stuff. 301

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If you want to know about me personally, 302

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I learned to code by starting projects 303

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that were actually way too difficult for me at the time, 304

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but that made them real challenges 305

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that made me grow tremendously. 306

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For example, I tried and failed 307

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to a football simulation game with Visual Basic. 308

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Then, I build a Content Management System in PHP 309

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with really bad quality code, but it worked 310

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and I actually sold it to a client 311

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and made good money. 312

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I also accepted some client projects for websites 313

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that I didn't know how to deliver, 314

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but I figured it all out in the end 315

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and it made me grow so much. 316

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And I'm sure that the same is gonna happen to you too. 317

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Anyway, back to the journey here, 318

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at a certain point, you will start to see the light. 319

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So at this point, you are getting quite good at writing code 320

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and your confidence will finally start to grow again. 321

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You are now in the back to awesome phase. 322

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Now you can either start learning new technologies 323

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or you can start rounding up your skillset 324

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with best coding practices and tools 325

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that you will need for jobs, 326

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for example, like version control, testing, 327

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task runners, et cetera. 328

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If your goal is to find a new job, 329

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you're probably starting to be ready to apply for jobs. 330

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You need many things for that, like a really good portfolio, 331

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but that is a topic for another day. 332

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Just be aware that even when you're working, 333

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you will never stop learning. 334

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So you're never really done learning how to code. 335

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Web development changes really fast 336

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and so you will need to be constantly adapting 337

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to new technologies. 338

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All right, and that is basically the typical journey 339

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from start to job ready. 340

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Now please, don't be scared by what I just told you. 341

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I'm telling you all these things not to scare you, 342

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but to prepare you because I really want you to succeed 343

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on this path and I want you to achieve real success, 344

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not like fake success. 345

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There are just too many people out there 346

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who will tell you that coding is easy 347

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and that you will magically become a web developer 348

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in two months if only you take their course, 349

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but this is simply not true. 350

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So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you 351

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that coding is easy. 352

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It's not easy. 353

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But with the right attitude and the guidelines 354

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I showed you in this lecture, you can totally do it. 355

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And I mean that because I've seen it happening 356

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time and time again. 357

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So many people have learned how to code 358

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from complete scratch, switched careers, 359

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found better jobs and improved their lives dramatically. 360

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And I mean many of my students and also many other people 361

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that I know personally, it's real, 362

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and you can achieve the same thing. 363

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Just keep going, keep coding and keep building.