hazlin on Nostr: All this talk of learning has reminded me of an experience. Long ago, on a website I ...

All this talk of learning has reminded me of an experience.

Long ago, on a website I do not recall. I read an article. It highlighted a solo game project, where the dev was a teenager who self taught programming. He had created a Link's Awakening type 2d game, one level.

The first version of the article praised the effort and focused on, actually doing something. But! there was an ocean of feedback on the game and the article, about how it was not coded with best practices. The dev even used GOTO (GASP!).

The second version of the article focused on learning best practices and not getting ahead of yourself.

What is the moral of this story? Well, the lesson taught here, was that, your program's value isn't in the end result, but in the technical details of how you get there.

And, upon reflection of my own life, back before I was introduced to these ideals of implementation purity, I wrote my three most widely used programs xD One in AutoHotKeys, one in TIBasic, and one in MATLAB.

That was before my education on programming. Since starting my education, I've spent years learning, but produce few programs that other people or even myself use. It really is better to DO instead of to LEARN. Something I am now embracing.