Although the majority of developers know why programming is exciting, you might wonder about ways to make it funnier.
I've recently asked on the Instagram of HereWeCode the following question: "What small tutorials do you want to see on the account?". One of the followers answered "How to make coding interesting?". I was surprised because I'd never asked this myself.
After a few hours of searching, I wanted share with you different ways to make programming more fun.
Why coding is exciting
In my opinion, IT in general is exciting. We live in a world where computers are one of the most important things.
As we speak, programming is not a skill that everyone has. Being able to develop your own project is this world gives you a chance. Everything is possible thanks to Information Technology, and we live in a key period where there are not enough developers to satisfy the need.
Coding is a creative skill, and it's exciting to be a part of a project. Although mobile apps and websites are everywhere, I talked with a lot of people who don't know how they work.
My speech so far may seem a bit over-sold and over-played, but it's the reason why coding is exciting for me.
It's one of the reasons why I take so much pleasure in creating educational content.
How to make it more fun
After thinking about it, although programming is now a passion for me, I remembered that it hasn't always been fun for me.
Mostly when I started, I would get stuck for days on a problem. Sometimes I would completely lose hope and say: "This is not for me. I tried everything, and it still does not work. I'm not that good."
If that's the case with you, I can tell you – everybody's been there.
This situation can also happen for many other reasons. For example, when you are bored with a language or a framework because you've used it too much.
Anyway, don't worry too much about it. Here, I've listed a few tips to give you a dose of fun when you need it.
Practice
Writing code is like playing golf. When you start, it's not fun. You need to learn everything: which driver to use for hitting the ball in such a way, how to position yourself, and so on. The pleasure will come as you go along, begin to understand things, and start to have fun with them.
Don't just read code, run it
Following along with lessons by simply reading the code can be a significant problem when people start programming.
When you are learning how to code, you should try to write and run it by yourself. Take the time to do it – you will understand it better, and you will have fun trying to modify the code to create your programs.
Here's another example: when you are searching for a code on GitHub, why not try it out? It can be fun to understand someone else's work and be able to integrate it into your project.
Add a dose of fun to your projects or apprenticeships
When you are bored with one technology or if you want to increase your knowledge, you can learn a new library, framework, or language. This can be an interesting process and can help you to try new things and have fun doing them.
However, I don't recommend that you only learn from and follow along with a course. If you do so, after a few days you will be bored. Every day or with every new chapter, create small projects to encourage yourself, and let your creativity run free.
Try to find some fun projects to work on. For example, imagine you are learning the basics of JavaScript. Even if these skills are the most important, learning them won't be enjoyable. Once you know how to get user inputs and print in the console, why not trying to create a simple "chatbot" that answers user questions?
When I was doing my search to answer this question, I found this story from a Quora user, and I liked it. It's an excellent example of how to put fun into your apprenticeships.
"Another thing - the worst is learning a new thing - it is usually very challenging, and your progress is much slower than you wish it were. To make that fun, I typically trick my brain.
For example, when I was learning about assembly language, and we had a project to program a tiny hardware display - well first, it was very dull. You had to study the hardware manual, it had inputs and outputs, and all you could achieve was a few letters to appear on the screen.
But I challenged myself to master that thing, and to do that, I came up with my own "special exercise". Instead of merely writing 10101 on display, I came up with the idea to write something more stupid, more childish. Something like - ——CALL -ME - NOW -XXXX — flashing and moving over the screen - this was WAY more advanced than the actual task we had been assigned in class. I just used this stupid thing to motivate myself to learn everything I could about assembly languages, and boy, this worked out well! :)"
— Marcus Biel
Always challenge yourself
When you are a developer, you always need to learn new things to stay up to date. Everything is evolving quickly, and you can't be left behind. Boredom or lack of fun occurs when you no longer feel like you are growing or learning.
To counteract this feeling, you can try to achieve goals that you have not yet met.
For example, if you have never participated in an open-source project, you can search on GitHub and contribute for the first time.
Your sense of satisfaction will be increased when you succeed in having your work accepted within the project. Perhaps you will help dozens, even hundreds of people, by fixing a previously unresolved problem.
You can also participate in coding competitions or use coding websites such as HackerRank, CodingGame, or Project Euler to challenge yourself.
Create a personal project from scratch
It can be frustrating to be a developer when you're only working on a small part of a project for your company.
Maybe you have always dreamed about a project, but you've never taken the time to work on it. Why not try to code it? You will see – it's fun to start the project of your dreams. It's also a worthy goal to make your programming habit stick.
If you don't have any ideas, try to find a theme you like, for example:
- If you like video games, you can try to create a game.
- If you are into education, why not create tutorials around code?
- If you love hardware and electronics, why not build an Arduino or a raspberry pi?
"Programming is like writing - in the main subject matters much more than the writing itself." — lifeisstillgood
Define a goal
This point always returns in all of my productivity articles. You must define goals.
Without goals, it's challenging to feel comfortable and enjoy what you are doing as a developer.
Find a mentor
A mentor can be motivating if you don't find coding fun anymore.
A mentor can give you a goal to follow and teach you the best practices. They can also help you improve your programming skills and stimulate your professional career.
Perhaps you are wondering how to ask your "hero" to become your mentor.
Well, just send a message and them to be your mentor.
Yeah yeah, it's that simple. Maybe, they will be pleased to know that you value their skills enough to mentor you. In most cases, they will be delighted to accompany you in your development.
Sleep more
When you are in a downward spiral, programming becomes less fun. Sometimes it can be difficult for you to move forward and thrive in your work.
Go to bed earlier for a few nights or sleep later in the morning for a few days, and everything should improve dramatically.
Show your work
What's worse than being a developer and losing all hope because you're alone in your basement? It's a bit of a cliché but, believe me, when you work alone for a long time on a project and never show it to anyone, it becomes less fun right away.
This tip is close to the previous ones. Once you share your work, people will make suggestions or ask questions. It's going to be challenging for you and will help you set new goals.
Conclusion
I tried to round up some essential tips to help you have fun while programming. If you have any other advice or suggestions to make it more fun, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message.
Why do you think programming is exciting? How do you make programming more fun?
Feel free to share this article if you liked it.
If you want more content like this, you can follow me on Twitter, where I tweet about web development, self-improvement, and my journey as a full stack developer!