Loosing Interest in Programming

everytime i sit and study i try to focus 100% on what im doing. i just keep feeling like i loose interest in it all the time and not really something that keeps me interested anymore, been like this for about a year now :(

I want to do IT and have a career in IT one day but i think i may have to face the reality .. programming is not for me :(!

Just wont click, i cant seem to understand it no matter how hard i try and research, i dont like the mathematical and logical way it works, its not my strong point, i find mroe interest in IP addresses, Netowrking and the server side of things, infrastructure.

Feels like i have forced myself to study programming for a year as it might be the most wealthy outcome of IT .. the software side but im doing programming for all the wrong reasons, and if im doing that then i wont learn anything as i dont really want to inside. I mean its been a year and i havent evern got half way through a book, i keep stopping and starting all the time, no good!


Well thats my little outburst over with lol.

i just feel so unmotivated in the programming side of things for some reason ... maybe programming isnt for me?

It certainly is not for everyone. However dealing with IP addresses and networking and anything to do with IT really, is going to require some knowledge of logic and program flow. Lots of "non programming" IT based stuff is still done with scripting (especially now with powershell) so learning programming is certainly not going to hurt anything, even if you aren't working as a programmer/developer.

Programming is a very broad thing that within it, there are many different things people do. Some people do tons of database programming and standard business application programming. Some people write games, some people write the software that other people use to write software :)

Perhaps if you had a goal project, you would find more interest. Nothing too crazy to discourage you, but something that you would actually use if you were to create it yourself. Programming books can be very boring...

Thread moved to 'General Developer' forum.

I agree with Matt, especially on the project - that is how most of us long-term programmers got in to it.

In terms of potential income server management (networking etc) isn't that far behind programming, so unless money is massively important to you then you should pick the one that you prefer and/or are best at.

The problem is (from what is sounds) that you are loosing interest because you are "going by the book".

Books are boring, of course you loose interest. You need to make programming a hobby. Do what you like... write a program to draw some shapes in nice colors, like a screen saver for example. Write a program that plays music, or something that deals with pictures. Do something exciting, something that you think it's "cool" !!
Also, move on quickly, if something stands in your way (that you just can't fix. i.e. can't find on the vbforums, or in google), then forget it, start on a new idea. When you know more and have more experience, you will get back to it, and you will make it work.
Don't try to make big programs, do as many small programs as you can.

After you write a few of those programs, you wont need the book, you will be able to correct your teacher in class, and do assignments in a few hours instead of 2 weeks. By the time you finish reading the assignment requirements you will already have in your mind every single line of code of the entire program, the only problem will be your hands moving too slow to actually type it on the computer!

Programming is FUN !!

Agree. Don't do it if it's going to be "work". That never worked for me - and I've been at this for 34 years. As soon as it reaches the point where you do it just because you "have to" then it's no longer fun and you won't be inspired to write good code. It has got to be fun. It's too complex a hobby to do if you hate it.

-Max

I was in your situation for awhile.
When I first started, I would look in a book, see what the result should look like, and work backwards. Totally the wrong approach.

To be perfectly honest, programming just "clicked" for me one day (the day before finals, so it was none too soon :)). Everything I thought I didn't understand all of a sudden made sense.

It's possible that you are trying too hard to understand it, or you are trying to understand too many concepts at one time. For example, trying to figure out what to do with a variable in a do/while loop won't make any sense if you haven't first understood how the variable was declared. If that makes sense.

Also, I would echo what others have said. Put down the book! Think to yourself, "what kind of program would I find useful" and create it. Something small of course. And when you begin, don't focus on how it should work in the end, but focus on one piece. Once that is working, and you understand why it works, move on to the next piece, and so on.

The point I'm trying to get at is, what worked for me was to stop frustrating myself by trying to do or understand everything at once.

Programming is not just writing things and a screen and making things happen. It's problem solving, looking at each part of the problem and proposing a solution for a part, which will be combined with the solution to other parts of the problem to give you the entire solution.

And by all means, if you don't want to be a hardcore software developer, do not force yourself into it. The infrastructure guys where I work earn quite a decent salary. However, if you go into IT, you will never EVER get away from the logical(programming) way of thinking, no matter what you do (unless it's management :p).

Hey guys, thanks for the posts and giving me your views on this.

I have left the study for a couple of days to let some things sink in, you see at heart now i really want to do programming but think i was trying to understand everything all at one, i flicked through the books i have, then wanted to understand Polymorphism, Generics, .NET Framework, Serialization .. everything!! and i wanted to know it now and frustrated when i tried to understand it all as it was way too much to take in, but then i got bored doing the same "calculator program" time and time again. Also another point to mention, i was doing my study using console apps and not windows forms; very very very boring and put me off, i like the windows forms side, and it look way more fun than boring console apps, (one reason i was put off).
i ultimately want to have MCTS ASP.NET 3.5 cert and be able to code up windows and web apps using VB .NET

i am staying aboard lol :) just gona take the advice n take small steps, one at a time and code up peices i want to code up and not follow the book by strict meassure.


thanks :)

That's a good way to go. :)

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned above (I couldn't see it), but an important thing to keep in mind is that you will never know/understand everything, simply because there is not enough time - in the same way that experts in literature will never manage to read every book.

I personally used VB6 professionally for about 10 years, yet could name many large areas within it that I have little of no knowledge of (such as WinSock, INet, OLE controls, etc).

The thing to do is work out what things are important to you (whether due to to job/exam requirements, or just personal interest), and work on learning them in stages. As you have found, trying to jump in at the deep end just causes confusion and frustration.

very true, thanks again guys; good points to take onboard here!

Now watch me when i own my multi-million pound software business one day! :)

Let us know when we can buy some shares

Doing too much too fast will ultimately lead to failure. You need a good solid base which comes in time.
If you start with smaller applicaitons that interest you or you can use at work to simplify your tasks, using your app will motivate you to stay int he game.

Without some kind of payoff/benefit for each short term goal it will be hard to stay the course for the long run.

Sometimes we just need to take a break from programming and when we return we are compoletely refreshed and ready to go

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Originally Posted by zappia

i just keep feeling like i loose interest in it all the time and not really something that keeps me interested anymore, been like this for about a year now :(

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That has been happening to me ever since I became interested in programming 12 years ago and I still have those days sometimes. All I can say is stick with it.

i will do, finding it more interesting if i look at the topics im interested in and design programs that i like to work with, now all i need is how to understand parsing!! grrrrr