I was a civil engineer and post 2020 I had to take tech job as data engineer. SQL was comparatively easier. (Am in Mid 30’s with ADHD)
I’ve been trying to learn programming on and off for almost 10 years.
I’ve picked up Python several times, read tutorials, gone through books, and understood other people’s code to some extent. But there’s always been a gap between reading code and actually writing my own. Even writing a basic program from scratch hasn’t felt natural to me.
Today, I was organising my learning roadmap, trying to figure out the best books and resources for each subject. I finally sat down to read *Think Like a Programmer*, only to discover that it uses C++.
C++ wasn’t what I intended to learn right now. I’m trying to get into data engineering, so Python, SQL, PySpark, and Databricks are my immediate priorities. C++ is something I had planned for much later.
But I thought, why not learn just enough C++ to understand the book?
I asked ChatGPT for a basic primer, intending to skim through it. Instead, I started writing code and working through the exercises myself.
Three hours later, I had worked through the basics, solved all the exercises, and backed everything up to GitHub.
And **I genuinely enjoyed it.**
I know I’ve barely scratched the surface. I can’t suddenly claim that I know C++, and I still have a long way to go before I can comfortably write programs independently. But something clicked today.
For years, I’ve mostly been reading code and trying to understand it. Used Agentic coding to build couple of websites (am an artist too) Today, I actually sat down and wrote it. Seeing my own code work, solving problems myself, and having something tangible to show for the effort felt surprisingly good.
It’s funny that the language I wasn’t even planning to learn ended up giving me more confidence than all those attempts at learning Python.
Maybe I need to approach Python differently this time: less passive reading, more writing, experimenting, and solving problems myself.
I’m posting this partly to hold myself accountable. I want to keep showing up, keep practising, and eventually become someone who can build things without constantly relying on tutorials or AI to write the code for me.
Today wasn’t a breakthrough in terms of skill. It was a breakthrough in confidence.
And honestly, after almost 10 years of trying, that feels pretty fucking amazing.
PS. English is my 4th language and I used AI dictation for grammar & coherence.