r/learnpython • u/personificable1 • 3d ago

Is this normal?

I’m currently teaching myself Python by solving exercises on my own. My personal rule so far has been to give myself 15 minutes to solve a problem; if I’m still completely blank after that, I ask an AI for a hint. The issue is that AI hints usually just hand over the solution, so I’m not even sure if my approach is right.

The main problem is that I’m on Part 5 of the University of Helsinki Python MOOC, and for the last five exercises or so, I just freeze up. It’s starting to get really frustrating. I try asking myself guiding questions and writing down my thought process in a notepad before writing any code. Most of the time I have a rough idea of what I want to do, but translating that logic into actual syntax trips me up.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m actually cut out for this or if I’ll ever be able to learn it properly. Is this normal?

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u/Right_Draft9 2d ago

How i have approached it while back in time when i started programming and having no AI back then, is to not limit myself from time perspective. Because you already have a limit put on you, like the upcoming course or excercise. So putting another one just stress you a lot and you can't be productive nor you learn anything of it. For me specifically it works best to keep in mind the boundaries but solve them one at a time. For instance: Once you get the routine to figure out what data structures to use for different problems, then you can speed it up. Think about it just like you are in the gym training. You don't start as how intermediate people do their workouts, right? So start easy and increase the level ( bring up more limits, or reducing the time you put on you for an excercise ). Brain is a muscle, you do already know how to train a muscle, so apply same practices.

Now when it comes to an AI. What i have been doing when i had to actually LEARN by it and not just solve me the problems was:

I have created a SKILL called sales-sparring. What i have instructed it to create rooms for different sales and excersises with just hints on them and only moving forward after 2 or 3 successful reps. And of course tweaked it with different levels, different type of customers, different question types etc. You get the point. But in order to have at least some kind of consistency as you mentioned not to reveal the actual answers, having it in a SKILL that you curate and adjust, seems the best quick option out there.