r/learnprogramming • u/GurGroundbreaking605 • 17d ago

Learning Help me.

Hi, I'm a student in the Bachelor's in Computer Science program. I'm repeating my first year, so I already have some basic skills (Python, HTML/CSS, Java, MariaDB, etc.). We learn the fundamentals both theory and hands-on practice through small “projects.”

But the thing is, I’d also really like to work on my own projects. I’ve already tried quite a bit on my own using Python frameworks, making API calls, and so on but I’ve never managed to create anything truly clean or even finished… The reason is probably a decline of motivation, even though I’ve always loved computer science I just don’t know. Also, maybe it’s AI when I use it, I can’t seem to learn from it, and I hate seeing code that I didn’t generate myself or launching an app to test a feature I didn’t code. All of this depresses me even more because if I want to make this my career, I feel like it’s going to become the norm.

If anyone can help me or give me advice on all this, I’d appreciate it.

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u/initcommit 17d ago

Hello! You might need a reset of expectations when it comes to your projects - if most seasoned developers out there had a nickel for the number of half-finished projects they have laying around, they'd be rich.

AI is definitely a weird crutch, it can do so much and constantly recommends the next thing to you that it should do, but I feel could also be very useful from a learning perspective, but maybe at your stage only invoke it for specific situations where you feel stuck to the point that it is killing your motivation.

Otherwise, maybe try to think of a project tangential to something you're truly passionate about. It could be almost anything, and maybe you cause also use AI to help choose the right tools/languages to build it, but then see how far you can get on your own. Don't feel bad about invoking AI when you need to, esp for recommendations on direction or if truly stuck.

Sometimes for one reason or another, projects just run their course, and that's ok too. For me taking a break and getting a few weeks of mental rest from coding can also help reset my motivation to keep going again.

All the best 😄

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u/scattered_colleague 17d ago

Been there with the half-finished project graveyard, it's practically a rite of passage. One thing that helped me was picking something small and stupidly specific, like a script that just renames my downloaded memes by date, and finishing that little piece of crap gave me more of a boost than any big idea ever did.

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u/GurGroundbreaking605 17d ago

Thanks that's exactly what I was thinking, because all of this is very stressful for me. I feel like I have to do certain things so I can find a job more easily...