What motivates you?

[g4be]

Since 2013 I’ve been studying CS and due to that I met many, many people.
Some of them said their dream was to become a great programmer or a CEO of a huge company while others just wanted to learn more things so they could come up with projects or even understand how things are done.

So my question is: what motivates you to come to Codecademy and spend hours studying? Going through lessons, spending a few minutes (if not some hours) trying to figure out how to come up with a solution for a given exercise or try to find someone who can explain you how something is done.

Is there something you’d like to accomplish, such as an specific job, or because you want to learn more things?

[stetim94]

I just learning coding the slow way, spending a lot of time, trying to figure something out, just for fun. Programming as hobby, build little things, fiddle with some code, trying to improve my understanding

Someone who is seriously learning to program does things i do 4 times as fast, but i don’t care. My motivation? I enjoy it, which also mean that i feel the frustration if something doesn’t work, and even more satisfied when something does work I really enjoy configuring linux (setting up things, like vpn, mpd, ssh,kodi and more)

A friend of mine build a car out of lego, i wrote the software to drive (simple c program with ncurse library for key entry’s), i really enjoyed that as well

Do i want to get a job in programming? Nope, i could never work on a big project for a long time. I will keep it a hobby.

Really great question, i am very curious what other people are going to answer

[g4be]

@stetim94: I’ve once done something similar but the code itself was ready, don’t know why our teacher didn’t let us code something, but we had to do some really crazy calculation to find the best way possible to go from a place to another while holding something.
It was ‘easy’ at certain points but to think of the best way to complete one of his challenges was the hard part haha

To be honest, I don’t really know what I want to do in the computing area but I know I want to be part of it

I hope more people will join and share their stories!
Thanks for sharing yours, @stetim94!

[zystvan]

Is there something you’d like to accomplish, such as an specific job, or because you want to learn more things?

I program mainly because I enjoy it. I remember starting out with the JavaScript course and being so amazed at how easy it was to create a popup dialog (confirm("...");), or to make my own text-based game as the course went on. It was just so amazing, and I got hooked on learning to code.
Taking the Learn Rails course gave me that same feeling again, seeing how amazingly easy it is to store user-created data on a webpage. It’s so cool.

Now that I know I like programming, I’m planning on getting an internship with a local company this year if I can, and hopefully I’ll become a “real” web developer at some point in the future.

[draygglez]

My motivation… Becoming better than my current self.

Always wanted to place my fingers all over the keyboard since i was young. lol
I’ve loved the computer for a reason i cant explain. I always dreamed of being a guru or something… like typing really fast, using short cuts, bypassing stuffs such that the person beside me would wonder what and how i was doing it.

I was hoping to take the computer science course when i get into the university but nope. I got accepted into the metallurgical engineering course this year tho i’m yet to resume and i even found out that taking a computer science course here, you would only learn the basics.

I gained full access to a laptop and a bit of access to internet recently. I’ve been exploring. I don’t know what i really want to do but i want to have a vast knowledge on programming… Maybe become a hacker (white hat) or create apps.

I mean I love this topic. Somebody please advice me on what to do after i finish this javascript course since i already took Html and css. Maybe i should do command prompt but i’m not sure building the website stuff is my thing since i really didn’t get the positioning and stuff in the Html and css course. I’m awaiting replies.

[caders]

Until the last August, I was a complete noob at coding.

I always had a “thing” with computers though. I would edit HTML (Didn’t know it was even called HTML though) on websites, change colors and pictures, and understood well how the file directories work, but I had never really considered being a “coder”.

Last year, when school got out (May-ish) I had to move to a new town. Without friends to hang out with, there wasn’t really anything I could do besides sit and rot my brain on Xbox for the summer.

That is, until July, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to learn something, to aquire knowledge. My dad was talking about one of his friends writing software for banks, so I looked up “How to code”, scrolled through 80 websites, did a couple free trials.

Then I found Codecademy. It is completely engaging, takes all of my thought, and I LEARN. Since then I’ve completed nearly every course here, took a couple college courses, and read books over C/C++.

I am driven by my newfound love of computers, and a quest for knowledge. Codecademy is the best thing I’ve ever stumbled upon.

I hope to either become a developer for a big company (Google, Apple), or develop apps to do things that people need.

Thanks everyone here for helping me learn, and getting me through tough times.

[zystvan]

@draygglez

hacker (white hat) or create apps

It’s kind of like tuning an instrument by ear when you’re not sure if it’s sharp or flat. Go one way, and if it doesn’t sound right, go the other.
I’d suggest you start off with the Command Line and Python courses and see how you like that sort of stuff. If you decide you do and want to dig into Python a little deeper, CodingBat has some pretty good challenges

If you have more questions, it might be best to create a new topic or PM me so we don’t get too off-topic here

[draygglez]

Very well. I appreciate your response.

[gaurangtandon]

I am more motivated to come to the forums and help out the people than study the course content, because I know that if people don’t get help when they need it they become very sad besides I like helping users

When I used to take CC courses, it was primarily for fun. I came to know of it through code.org when I didn’t have any new flash game to play and I thought hey JS looks fun let’s try it! I don’t know how I got addicted to it, and now I know that my profession will surely be in CS. Thanks to Codecademy for letting me discover my skills!

What motivates me? Because I feel that I am a very logical person and I like Maths, Computer, Chess (logical subjects) and it is here where I get to apply my logic and build my abilities

[g4be]

@zystvan: Coding is indeed amazing. If you stop to think about it, you have the power to create anything you want with it, you just need to know how to do it. For example, I’d create many cats, instances, where their variable obey would be True other than False, so they would obey me
Programming is great but I think the language you use to do it is an important part of it!

Hope you get that internship! Just relax if they decide to make you some questions just to know what they should teach you.

@draygglez: Hmmm, I’ve finished the Python course here, and a few others, and I have to say that after learning a language here you should go and CODE ! You won’t get better at something without practice! You can learn the entire syntax about it but if you’ve never pushed yourself to the limit, you won’t be different from the others.
Not saying you should compare yourself with the others but you should do more, you know?
I’d suggest go for Command Line and work hard on it. It’s not hard, seriously, but you need to pay close attention to which directory you’re currently in.

@cadecodes: Oh, welcome to Codecademy! Glad you found this website and had curiosity to learn how to code!
I can’t “really” say I’m a C++ programmer since I don’t know everything about it but I can find my way through and trust me, if you know C++, you’ll find Python really easy!

@gaurangtandon: I got hooked with Python thanks to my sister, first came face-to-face because my sister wanted to do something in Python and neither of us knew about it so I looked through many websites, tutorials, videos and such.
I have to say it wasn’t easy to find a good website, that would explain things other than just say “Hey, you do this just by calling/using that. Here’s an example:”, those things sure get me on my nerves!
You like Mathematics as well? Me too!
Oh but when they mix complex computing things with mathematics, things can turn into a nightmare-wannabe haha

I’ve decided to first focus on Python, and Command Line since I mainly use Linux at college, to later go for other languages. I want to become really good at it and to be able to help others with their doubts.
Just like @gaurangtandon said, there’s nothing more frustating than having a doubt and not finding anyone who can help you.

Glad Codecademy members are always willing to help each other !

[caders]

@g4be, I actually pursued C++ because I love Python. I find it more fun than web development. Rails is pretty cool though!

[stetim94]

Python was written in C, why do you pursue C++ then? (or is my knowledge wrong?) Anyway, it goes a bit off-topic this way

[caders]

C++ is a bit easier to understand (for me). Once I master C++, I will move to C!