How to stay motivated with programming
From ArticleWorld
Computer programming is one of the more frustrating things to learn, especially if you are not a proffessional programmer (or a will-be programmer) so that the only choices you have are write programs or starve. One of the biggest challenges people confront while learnig programming is how to stay motivated. There are times when programming will just seem boring or useless. Here are a few ways to make it more bearable:
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The magic seven
- Casual programming. You needn't get paid to write, or have to write the next-generation Unix to make it worth it. If you find a task that could be made easier by writing a program, write one.
- Stay challenged. Programming will surely seem dull and boring if you are not feeling challenged. If you do not know how to write a program, find out and write it. There is no better way to expand your knowledge than that.
- Make a broad interest field. You may not know much about writing network-based applications. Why not learn how to do it?
- Get involved. Socilogists have long agreed on the fact that it easier for people to motivate themselves when working as a team. Therefore, if you have the time, join an open-source project, like the ones listed on SourceForge.net. Working with other people will help you stay motivated, much better than working alone.
- Learn programming on other platforms, too. Linux programming poses some additional challenges and takes out some of them when compared to programming on Windows. The same applies for any other platform.
- If you are a beginner, a good way to stay motivated is to read some inside stories, like the ones listed on http://folklore.org . Written by proffessionals with some writing skills as well as programming skills, and a lot of humor, these stories can raise your apetite sometimes.
- Learn new paradigms. Do you feel you master procedural programming well enough? Why not go for OOP? Or learn functional programming with Haskell. Or learn an assembly language.