Build little things at a time. I'm actually just learning programming as well, at 23, a bit older than you.
The other day I built my first login/registration system in PHP/MySQL. I was up for about 6 hours doing it until the morning, but it was very fun and satisfying. Now that I know how to make a login and register system, I can start parlaying that into my next projects; maybe a site that has user profiles, or that lets people post text, upload files, etc.
I tried learning Java a bit ago but didn't continue with it. It was difficult to grasp OOP as a beginner, but I also had no idea what I wanted to make with it, and where to start. I think you have to keep your expectations low, fuck all the hottest libraries, languages, frameworks, etc. You can't expect yourself to be using those off the start, it will only burden your morale when you fail (and you will fail, because you have no foundation on which to use those technologies).
Anyway, my suggestion is start building shit that's simple and neat and fun for you. You can learn the science of programming along the way, but whats more important is showing yourself that you can do it. Learning is easier when the task is fun, so don't think that you have to catch up and put out professional cutting edge scripts. Good luck!
Comments
Build little things at a time. I'm actually just learning programming as well, at 23, a bit older than you.
The other day I built my first login/registration system in PHP/MySQL. I was up for about 6 hours doing it until the morning, but it was very fun and satisfying. Now that I know how to make a login and register system, I can start parlaying that into my next projects; maybe a site that has user profiles, or that lets people post text, upload files, etc.
I tried learning Java a bit ago but didn't continue with it. It was difficult to grasp OOP as a beginner, but I also had no idea what I wanted to make with it, and where to start. I think you have to keep your expectations low, fuck all the hottest libraries, languages, frameworks, etc. You can't expect yourself to be using those off the start, it will only burden your morale when you fail (and you will fail, because you have no foundation on which to use those technologies).
Anyway, my suggestion is start building shit that's simple and neat and fun for you. You can learn the science of programming along the way, but whats more important is showing yourself that you can do it. Learning is easier when the task is fun, so don't think that you have to catch up and put out professional cutting edge scripts. Good luck!