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Start small

Something I hear a lot from people who are learning to code is that they start working on a project, get totally lost, and then get frustrated and just give up.

This sucks. I can also 100% relate.

Learning by working on projects is awesome! But I’ve found that the biggest mistake people make when trying to learn this way is taking on a project that’s too big too soon.

Don’t try to build an ecommerce platform. Don’t try to build a calculator app. Don’t try to write your own API. (If you find any of those things easy, ignore what I just wrote, of course.)

Start really simple.

<button>Show More</button>
<div hidden>This content is hidden by default.</div>

How simple? write a script that shows that hidden content when the button is clicked, and hides it again when it’s clicked again.

Once you’ve got that figured out, modify the script so that its accessible and will properly announce what’s happening to screen readers. Then, modify it again so that you can have a group of them like an accordion.

You want your tasks to be just challenging enough without being overwhelming.

As you gradually add complexity and new requirements, your skills will slowly grow over time. A year from now, you’ll look back and be amazed at just how much you learned.

But start small. You’ll get there!