System.out.println(“Write my essay”);

“Give a man a program, frustrate him for a day. Teach a man to program, frustrate him for a lifetime” –Muhammed Waseem

Such are my sentiments when it comes to computer programming. As I continue to become fascinated/struggle through learning how to code, I find the process has striking similarities to how I go about writing an essay. Here is my metaphor about how coding a computer program is not unlike the process of writing an essay:

You begin with an idea; you excite yourself with the near infinite amount of paths that you could take!

Doing this may make make you slightly overwhelmed…

But eventually, you ground yourself in something! You start to create the basic skeleton of your program, or an outline.

Once this is done, I find it best to jump right in!

Initially, you think that everything will just click:

But in reality, getting it right may take a few tries! You learn from your mistakes and keep going until you start seeing progress.

You will become frustrated. A lot. You may throw things.

You may even start to doubt your ability!

Sometimes, I find it best to step away from the work and clear my mind, relax a little!

Doing so will usually show me there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. Once I step back, I’m looking at my work with a better mindset, and things begin to come together!

It takes some time, but after all of the hard work you have put in, you realize that you have created something spectacular!

Of course, then comes the debugging, which involves going back and fine tuning/perfect what you have created. This can be an arduous process, but it will serve you better in the end.

Finally, you’re done! You’re ready to show off the incredible program that you have written. It was a long process, but you learned a lot, and you are very proud of your work. It’s time to celebrate!

You are a coding rock star!

 

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