文章链接：http://blog.thefirehoseproject.com/posts/learn-to-code-and-be-self-reliant/

在系统地学习编程技能之前，我希望你能先看一下 " The Key To Accelerating Your Coding Skills"， 这篇文章会告诉你如何有效地快速提高自己的编程能力。

正文简译

When you learn to code, there is a moment when everything begins to change. At Firehose, we like to call this the inflection point of coding. After this phase, the way you operate as a developer will be dramatically different. Building up to the inflection point is the process of becoming self-sufficient in programming, to the point where you no longer need any hand-holding. It can be a frustrating experience, but once it’s behind you, it is incredibly empowering.

the graph of learning when you learn to code

At Firehose, our goal isn’t just to teach you Ruby, how to build web applications, or how to write tests. Although we do teach these skills and more, our primary goal is to accelerate students past the inflection point so they gain the ability to solve any problem they encounter. We believe that being able to problem solve on your own is an invaluable skill, and this method of teaching will take you much further than simply learning how to build a set of apps.

学习编程的时候，会有一个“瓶颈点”。突破之前可能会比较令人沮丧，但一旦突破，会感觉无往不利。

拥有解决任何碰到的问题的能力，是无价的。学习编程的一种方法，就是加速突破瓶颈点的这个过程的方法。

The Tutorial Phase (3-8 weeks of serious coding)

When you start out learning to code, there’s a lot of information that you don’t know yet. This information is called domain-specific knowledge. Examples include: knowing how to write a loop in ruby or how to extract something from a database using Ruby on Rails. Domain-specific knowledge encompasses the protocols unique to a certain programming environment.

The first step to becoming a self-sufficient developer is learning how to do specific tasks. Once you master certain tasks, the broad strokes of how the pieces fit together will start to become apparent. Over time, you’ll begin to recognize patterns and eventually, the things that initially seemed confusing and foreign will become second nature.

教学阶段：大概持续3-8周的认真的编程学习，主要学习“领域限定”知识，也就是专业基础知识，或者该技能知识。

For students starting out, the most important skill to acquire is attention to detail.

Paying close attention to detail is important when going through materials like documentation or tutorials. Even the most minor typos and misspellings will result in error messages or bugs. Seeing error messages is a frustrating experience at first, but it’s a crucial step in the learning process. Dealing with error messages and problems in this phase teaches you one of the most important skills of programming within a safe environment: being detail-oriented.

Debugging error messages is incredibly important. The fact of the matter is, error messages are just a part of programming: they are seen by inexperienced and very experienced developers alike. The only difference is, the more experience you have dealing with error messages, the less time you’ll need to spend trying to fix them. Here’s why:

  • Over time, you will learn how to read error messages and extract the relevant details of the problem quickly. The first time you see an error message, it will take you a while to decode what it actually means. But after you’ve seen hundreds of error messages (and you will see hundreds!), you will be able to pinpoint the problem’s location and the relevant details you need in order to fix it.
  • You should learn from each error message that you resolve. Don’t just fix the error and be done with it; understand what is wrong with the code you’re fixing. By learning from each of your errors, the next time you make the same mistake, you’ll be able to fix it much faster.
  • Initially, you will probably ask for help on each error message you see. Over time, you’ll learn to ask for help less frequently by double-checking your code and [conducting smart Google searches.](http://blog.thefirehoseproject.com/posts/10-minutes-learn-programming/)

In the tutorial phase, you will follow instruction. At first, you’ll find it challenging to follow instructions and error messages will happen frequently. Over time, you’ll develop the skill to debug errors and pay better attention to small details, and you’ll be able to make progress much quicker. As you’re wrapping up the tutorial phase, you’ll notice you’re able to write code at a much more rapid pace.

At this point, some people feel confident– like they’re ready to ditch the training wheels and start building things without structured guidance– and will happily dive into the deep end. Other students will reach for more tutorials, trying to obtain more domain-specific knowledge in search of a “full understanding.” Unfortunately, tutorials will only take you so far, and true confidence isn’t found in tutorials or guides. True confidence comes from struggling through a problem you have no idea how to solve, and discovering a solution on your own.

*The dirty little secret of programming is…*

You will never know everything you need to know to solve all your problems. Going into the journey, you probably envisioned yourself eventually learning everything you need to learn, and then being squared away. This moment will never happen.

Programming is a life-long learning experience. Experienced software engineers seek to find solutions to problems they haven’t solved yet because it gives them the opportunity to learn more. If you find yourself waiting for the moment when you finally feel like you know everything there is to know about coding, know this: the day you’re waiting for will never come. And that is a wonderful thing.

You will be ready to jump into the next phase of your journey when:

  • You’ve seen enough error messages that they no longer startle you. Instead, you know how to decipher what they mean and where to look for the problems in your code.
  • You’re a pro at Googling for solutions. When you’re working to add a feature or see a confusing error message, you know what to search for to find the information you need.
  • You’re able to reference code you’ve written in other parts of your application and follow patterns within them, rather than always seeking out step-by-step instructions.

开始学习编程，或者说在教学阶段的同学，最重要的一点是 重视细节！

在此基础上，调试bug，阅读错误信息是更加、极其重要的！对于新手或老手，调试bug都是工作的一部分，只是老手熟悉错误信息格式，能快速定位错误信息中的有效信息、遇到过更多错误、有更丰富的查询信息经验而已。

在教学阶段，更多的是根据wiki或文档学习。但要逐渐明白，文档不是全部，你可能永远都不能知道该领域的所有知识，解决所有问题；应当建立起正确的学习编程的理念：编程是一生的经验，永远会遇到未知，这也是编程美好所在。

当你具备以下三点特质，可以说明教学阶段结束：

The Inflection Point (2-4 weeks with the right mentality)

The inflection point stage is one of the most frustrating stages of learning to code, but in many ways, it’s the only stage that matters. It’s the point when you phase out of using tutorials and begin solving problems for which no one has lined up a solution for you.

At some points, you will feel like you aren’t ready to tackle this phase and like you want to return to building something with an outline of exactly what to do. Don’t fall prey to this mentality. The reason you’ll feel frustrated is:

During the inflection phase, you will be coding 10-20 times SLOWER than in the previous phase.

You may start questioning yourself and wondering if you are actually capable of becoming a programmer. Feelings of insecurity and doubt are common in this stage.

Despite the fact that you’ll feel like you’re learning and accomplishing things at a much slower rate, in reality, you are achieving the things that matter the most. While your domain-specific knowledge is screeching to a putter, everything you’re learning will be about procedural knowledge.

Procedural knowledge is the ability to teach yourself what you don’t know along the way. When you need to implement a new feature, what type of Google search should you do? At this point in time, you’ll feel like you’re “in the dark” when it comes to many of the things you want to accomplish. Learning how to find the light on your own is critical because you can never know everything there is to know, so you need to be able to teach yourself how to solve the problem at hand.

Most people do not realize that in order to learn to code, you need to learn both domain-specific and procedural knowledge.

瓶颈期。

这个阶段，往往让人沮丧，因为可能这时候写代码的速度比前一阶段要漫10-20倍！

因为在这个阶段学习的是系统性/程序性的知识，通俗来说就是要把教学阶段学习的知识点串起来。

For the rest of your life, go outside your limits every single day

Some software engineers stay inside their comfort zone once they find their footing. These types of programmers are known as maintenance programmers– not something you should strive to be. Instead, you should strive to go outside your limits every single day. The most common reason programmers quit their jobs is because “it’s not challenging anymore since I’ve solved all the interesting problems.”

Rather than trying to pull coding projects into your comfort zone, you should be seeking out problems that are outside your current skill set. This is the only way to build on and expand your skills.

In the words of a Firehose student upon passing his inflection point:

I still feel like I’m in the deep end! I’m just getting more comfortable knowing that’s where I’ve got to be!

持续走出舒适区，突破自己的边界。（好鸡汤...）

In web development, there are actually two inflection points that will come together.

The web development inflection point is the point when you become capable of building any database-driven application that you want. This means being able to build a web application with many pages that stores and retrieves information from a simple database. Web developers call this: “mastering CRUD.” At this phase, you should also be able to integrate with any 3rd party library (a ruby gem for example) simply by following the documentation provided on GitHub or a blog post.

The algorithm and data structures inflection point is a less superficial inflection point, but it is actually more important. Someone who has conquered this point will have mastered the programming language they’re working in, in addition to mastering the fundamentals of programming and having a depth of knowledge for solving complex coding challenges.

People who have conquered the algorithm and data structures inflection point will be able to:

  • Write sorting algorithms
  • Implement and reverse linked lists
  • Understand and write programs leveraging stacks, queues, and trees
  • Write computer programs using recursive or iterative solutions

In short, once you pass this inflection point, you will have mastered data manipulation and will understand the performance implications of your code decisions. Traditional computer science degrees focus exclusively on getting students past the algorithm and data structures inflection point. Many universities teach this with programming languages that are generally not used in the industry, like Scheme, Racket, or LISP.

In most technical interviews, the interviewer will assume you’ve passed the web development inflection point, given that’s easier to do, and focus their questions on evaluating your skill in algorithms and data structures. These questions will generally focus on the topics we mentioned above: sorting algorithms, reversing linked lists, and using stacks, queues, and trees.

Once a developer has passed both the web development inflection point and the algorithm and data structures inflection point, they hold the keys to the kingdom.

These developers will be able to solve challenges that intersect the two: complex algorithms that need to be built in the context of advanced web applications. This is at the heart of what professional web developers do every single day.

网络开发中，实际有两个瓶颈点需要突破：

只有精通后者，才理解自己编写的代码，对网络服务性能的影响是怎样的。

两个都掌握的，才算是精通网络开发。

Consequences of the Inflection Point

The biggest consequence of the inflection point will sound a bit counterintuitive when you first hear it. Take a deep breath in:

When learning to code, domain-specific knowledge doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Yup. I’m not joking– it really doesn’t matter that much at all. Once you pass the inflection point, these concepts will fluidly translate with just a week or two of tutorials, maybe even days!

What ultimately really matters is:

  • You have a solid grasp on a web development framework
  • You have a solid grasp on writing algorithmically complex code in any programming language

突破拐点的最大的后果是，你会发现，特定领域的知识其实不是关键，关键是掌握web开发框架，掌握任意语言的复杂算法实现的能力。

Hiring managers want developers with solid web development and algorithm skills.

While I was working at PayPal, my team hired a Senior Rails Developer who had no experience in Rails– he had been coding a lot in Python, LISP, and Perl. Within a couple of days, he was already making a big impact. And within weeks: a huge impact. He quickly rose to become the technical team lead and was one of the best hiring decisions I’ve ever been involved in.

*Don’t sweat the stack*. Many people will say things like, “AngularJS is hot these days,” “JavaScript is on the rise,” or “the latest fad is…” My response to that is: “so?” When you’re learning how to program, your singular goal should be to find the inflection point and annihilate it. Once you do, learning that new, sexy fad won’t be a difficult task at all.

*Become self-reliant*. Having the ability to learn new coding skills without structured guidance means you no longer need to wait for anyone to help you out. This means that for the majority of what you need to learn, you can simply search the internet and read the various material on what you need to know.

This doesn’t mean you immediately “know” everything, but just that everything is now “figure-out-able,” so in essence, you are unstoppable.

鸡汤...

The Skills You Will Develop During the Inflection Point

As a software developer, the best reference material is similar code that you have already written. When you fully understand the code you’ve written, you don’t need to commit all the details to memory. This means that the first question you should ask yourself when building a new feature is: “Have I built something similar before?” If the answer is yes, revisit the code and walk through the code line-by-line in your head. Re-explain to yourself what it’s doing and ask yourself, “could I use the same approach now?”

*Videos suck at explaining domain-specific details* because they take so darned long to watch. Say you want to integrate with the Google Maps API. Once you’ve experienced doing so once, it can take less than a minute to open the code up in GitHub, copy the code, and paste it into a new project. Videos, on the other hand, can often take 10-30 minutes to re-watch.

突破拐点的时候，学到的技能，或者说领悟的概念是：

Strategies for Passing the Inflection Point as Efficiently as Possible

Because passing the inflection point is the most important part of learning to code, you should set yourself up to make the process as smooth as possible. This means you should start preparing while you’re in the tutorial phase and maintain the right mindset during this period of time.

During the tutorial phase, take breaks from going over structured material and give yourself challenge problems along the way.

  • For every handful of lessons, try to do something that is outside the scope of the tutorial you’re following. If the tutorials you’re going through provide “challenges” or “self-directed” pieces, do all of them. Solving unguided challenges will give you the important experience of doing things without structured guidance.
  • Try to use tutorials as little as possible. At Firehose, we often walk students through how to integrate certain gems or do things using the provided documentation. Rather than simply following the instructions explained in tutorials that are geared towards people who are just starting out, many students will follow the documentation and use the tutorials as a back-up. Note that documentation will treat you like a developer who has passed the inflection point. Getting comfortable reading and following documentation on GitHub will give you a leg up when you’re on your own.
  • Focus on the essentials and use repetition. Learn how to do common things like spinning-up an application from scratch, pushing a new app to GitHub and Heroku, and building a database migration early on.

**Pushing through the inflection point can be challenging. Here are some pointers to get you through it:

**

  • Understand that this is a difficult process and go easy on yourself. Also, set realistic expectations. You can’t compare your “superman”-level speed of going through tutorials to your “snail”-speed of learning things on your own. Keep in mind that you’re learning plenty, but at this phase, you’re learning a brand new skill of figuring new things out on your own.
  • If you’re struggling with self-confidence, know that what you’re feeling is completely normal. Keep working. If you continue to struggle, try talking to someone who has recently passed the inflection point. They will be able to relate to the position you’re in and will assure you that what you’re experiencing is only temporary. Work consistently, but don’t overwork yourself. At this phase of the game, know that you can only be productive for around 6 hours a day at the most. Working in an exhausted state will only prolong the time you spend building up to the inflection point.

The best way to gain confidence at this stage is to power through any doubts you have. Your emotions may start to feel like a roller coaster. At times, you’ll feel like you’re on fire, but after 15 hours of struggling on the same problem, it’s very common to feel the polar opposite.

It can be frustrating to have no idea if something will take you 5 minutes or 5 hours, but every time you power through and successfully implement a new feature, the rush of confidence will be everything you need. After solving a handful of hard problems without any help, you’ll be addicted to the feeling of building things outside your comfort zone.

提到一些技巧加速这个痛苦的过程：

当然，对自己不同太严苛，不要强度太大，自己把握。

How to know when you’ve passed the inflection point

The final stage of the inflection point process is acceptance. Acceptance that software development is a process of continuous learning. Acceptance that the feeling that you’ve successfully learned everything just means you should start thinking about solving more complicated problems.

怎么知道突破了拐点，答案是接受。感觉更像是大彻大悟...领悟软件开发学习是持续的过程；更实际的是，能思考更复杂的问题了。

一点感悟

2022-08-17

文章更偏向于纲领性，不是操作性的。对初入门来说，还是挺有参考意义的，毕竟指点了一个正确的方式方法。

以突破拐点/瓶颈点为主旨的软件开发学习，好像一下子有了目标，并且给基础知识学习加上了3-8周的时限，让初学者不要陷入唯知识论的盲目学习中，这点很好（想想学校填鸭式的，就有点难受）。

感觉应该是时看时新的文章，后面困惑了再回来看看。