I’ve been wanting to learn how to code for a while so I figure now is as good a time as any to start. I downloaded VS code on my laptop for python but I don’t really know end product I should try to code and I also am just bad and barely know what I’m doing. Does anyone here have any advice on what to code and how best to learn?

  • All the suggestions here are good for a complete beginner with no knowledge of coding, but I wanted to just add that once you get some experience and are more confident with your google-fu, I would suggest looking at the problem from the other side, and look for things you want to improve in your life first, and find ways to do that with code, rather than the other way around. It will help you stay more engaged with your project, and you’ll retain more knowledge.

    i.e. I hate guessing which parking lots around my school / office / apartment are full every day -> make a web scraper that scrapes parking lot occupancy and compiles it all in one place

    or

    I keep forgetting to water my plants -> hook up a raspberry pi to a solenoid, and code up something to water the plants for you

    I’ve found that to be a much better approach than going the opposite direction

    i.e.

    I need to learn how to write embedded code -> write an Arduino control loop that keeps dog bowl topped up.