ptg11539604
3PREFACE
in how to read, write, and see code. If you copy- paste, you are cheating yourself out of the effec-
tiveness of the lessons.
A Note on Practice and Persistence
While you are studying programming, I’m studying how to play guitar. I practice it every day for
at least two hours a day. I play scales, chords, and arpeggios for an hour at least and then learn
music theory, ear training, songs, and anything else I can. Some days I study guitar and music for
eight hours because I feel like it and it’s fun. To me, repetitive practice is natural and is just how
to learn something. I know that to get good at anything you have to practice every day, even if
I suck that day (which is often) or it’s diffi cult. Keep trying and eventually it’ll be easier and fun.
As you study this book and continue with programming, remember that anything worth doing
is diffi cult at fi rst. Maybe you are the kind of person who is afraid of failure, so you give up at
the fi rst sign of diffi culty. Maybe you never learned self- discipline, so you can’t do anything that’s
“boring.” Maybe you were told that you are “gifted,” so you never attempt anything that might
make you seem stupid or not a prodigy. Maybe you are competitive and unfairly compare yourself
to someone like me who’s been programming for 20+ years.
Whatever your reason for wanting to quit, keep at it. Force yourself. If you run into a Study Drill
you can’t do or a lesson you just do not understand, then skip it and come back to it later. Just
keep going because with programming there’s this very odd thing that happens. At fi rst, you will
not understand anything. It’ll be weird, just like with learning any human language. You will
struggle with words and not know what symbols are what, and it’ll all be very confusing. Then
one day—BANG—your brain will snap and you will suddenly “get it.” If you keep doing the exer-
cises and keep trying to understand them, you will get it. You might not be a master coder, but
you will at least understand how programming works.
If you give up, you won’t ever reach this point. You will hit the fi rst confusing thing (which is
everything at fi rst) and then stop. If you keep trying, keep typing it in, trying to understand it and
reading about it, you will eventually get it.
But if you go through this whole book and you still do not understand how to code, at least you
gave it a shot. You can say you tried your best and a little more and it didn’t work out, but at least
you tried. You can be proud of that.
A Warning for the Smarties
Sometimes people who already know a programming language will read this book and feel I’m
insulting them. There is nothing in this book that is intended to be interpreted as condescending,
insulting, or belittling. I simply know more about programming than my intended readers. If you
think you are smarter than me, then you will feel talked down to and there’s nothing I can do
about that because you are not my intended reader.