The Struggle with Learning How to Code

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Maaike Brinkhof

Maaike Brinkhof

Maaike is an independent agile tester. She loves testing because there are so many ways to add value to a team, be it b…

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25-minute Talk

Timetable

10:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Tuesday 16th

Room

Room F1 - Track 1: Talks

Audience

anyone who is stuck with learning how to code

Key-Learning

- analyse how you learn

- find out which learning style suits you best

- apply principles from stoicism to your learning journey

- figure out why you are stuck or failing

I’ve tried to learn how to code many times, but only my latest attempt has been successful. What have I changed in my learning approach to finally master this skill?

I vividly remember the first time I tried to learn how to code. I was used to being a quick learner and expected programming to be easy too. It came as a huge shock that it was incredibly difficult for me. I gave up because I couldn’t deal with how dumb it made me feel. A couple years later I tried again, and again….starting a streak of failing attempts to master this skill.

I’m now on my seventh attempt to learn how to code and this time I’m succeeding. So what has changed? In this talk I will “go meta” and analyse why my six attempts failed and why my seventh attempt succeeded.

This will bring us into many different areas: from stoicism to learning how to learn, to deep psychological beliefs about the self. It will be an incredible (and at times dark) personal story, yet I believe it might be helpful to you (if you’re struggling with this as well, that is!). My hope is that it will give you some ideas to explore and apply in your own journey to learn how to code.

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