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My big shift from copying code to actually writing it myself
For my first 6 months learning Python, I would copy and paste code snippets from tutorials into my projects. I thought I was learning but really I was just collecting other people's work. Last month I started a small project to build a simple expense tracker from scratch. I forced myself to type every single line of code by hand, even if I had to look up the syntax. The difference is huge I actually understand how the pieces fit together now instead of just hoping they work. Has anyone else made this change and found it helped them learn faster?
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anna_green4810d ago
Not really sure copying is the enemy here. Starting out, nobody knows what a function even looks like, so seeing working examples is how you learn patterns. The real trick is studying those snippets until you get why they do what they do. Typing everything out by hand is fine but it's mostly about building muscle memory, not understanding. I learned by copying code and then changing parts to see what broke, which taught me way more than just retyping things. Different approaches work for different people, but dismissing copying completely feels like gatekeeping how people learn.
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hayes.oliver9d ago
Broke so many projects that way myself!
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