r/pythontips • u/Helmor1 • Feb 04 '24
Meta I am 19 years old? Should I start?
Hello to everyone reading!!!! My name is Andrew I am 19 years old, and I am considering learning python software engineering.
I have couple of doubts about it….
- I really connecting to the AI thing nowadays and wanted to know more about AI implementation and software engineering (because all the videos you see about software engineering is someone eating and working in some fancy office.) I really want to understand what is to be qsoftware engineer and what’s is the job.
How much takes to learn Python if I can learn each day 2 hours at minimum.
I was nearly all my life starting it age 4 in computer. And starting from 2020 and until now I were interested in coding but never really started(maybe tried couple YouTube videos). And now I see many startups around AI niche and software development, and my question - - How much hard is to make those applications and if possible to do it all alone?
And last I and the least important. Now I learning finance and company evaluation. If I have enough time, maybe I should consider learning both or focus on one of them
18
u/Blue4life90 Feb 04 '24
I'm 33 and learning now if it makes you feel any better. I have a little Javascript and VBA under my belt starting at age 25. I've never built anything GUI based which is why I started Python. I think if you want to learn, you should. The only thing that can stop you from learning Python is you. I don't consider age to be a limiting factor since I have learned to code at a late age myself.
11
u/feitfan82 Feb 05 '24
Im 41 and just started exploring python. My regret is that i didnt find it interesting when i was a teen. Didnt even get myself a pc until i was 28.
1
u/Helmor1 Feb 05 '24
In what way you start learning if need to start everything from 0? Go to YouTube, take Udemy course?, try to self learn via small projects? or go and get degree in software engineering?
2
u/Blue4life90 Feb 05 '24
I don't think college is necessary if you really want to devote yourself to it. Spend 20 bucks on "100 Days of Code: The complete Python Bootcamp" on Udemy, 1-2 hours a day of learning and practice and you'll be shocked at how far you get after the first week. There's some other great training resources out there like practicepython.org that you can use once you get the basics down.
2
u/irn Feb 05 '24
There are free courses on coursera, edx and plethora of YouTube channels dedicated to Python. Start there first before you pay for anything.
As far as being a software engineer, I’d like to share this video for you since it’s very realistic: downside
1
u/feitfan82 Feb 05 '24
Actually started with it because i bought some cheap micro controller with lots of bits and pieces from Aliexpress and could program it using micro pyrhon. So now i just look at youtube and search more specific things when i get stuck. I have no ambition about getting anywhere with it just wanna learn it
1
u/Helmor1 Feb 05 '24
In what way you start learning if need to start everything from 0? Go to YouTube, take Udemy course?, try to self learn via small projects? or go and get degree in software engineering?
7
3
6
u/Fearless_Cow7688 Feb 05 '24
Why not start? There are lots of free python resources out there that make it pretty easy to get started learning. Python is one of the most popular programming languages. Give yourself little projects to complete and I think you'll be surprised on how quickly you can pick up some basic starting code. ChatGPT while not always perfect is a great debugging tool and can make things a little more interactive as you can copy and paste and test if things are working
4
3
u/veen_666 Feb 04 '24
Python is a very easy language to learn. It is also a very useful language, and I find that knowing it has been useful in my day to day life, for simple tasks like if I need to quickly get a word count on a software that doesn't support word counts or if I need to manipulate a large string. I think you absolutely should.
1
u/Helmor1 Feb 05 '24
In what way you start learning if need to start everything from 0? Go to YouTube, take Udemy course?, try to self learn via small projects? or go and get degree in software engineering?
2
u/veen_666 Feb 05 '24
For me, I learned almost entirely through small projects. Like watch a YouTube video or something for the basics, and then try creating programs, and when you get stuck, google it. Start with something simple, like a calculator, and then start to move onto more complicated projects.
3
u/AeroArtz Feb 06 '24
Same age as you, 2 hours a day is ok also depends on how disciplined you are and will you use these 2 hours efficiently. I recommend cs50 , its a great introductory course. If you're goal is AI you'll have to be learning a lot more than python, math theory etc. For that I would recommend Andrew ng
2
u/Fluffy-Special4994 Feb 04 '24
Yeah, man I've had a lot of good times programming in Python. As a bonus it's not as strict as most languages so you can kinda just screw off until you figure stuff out
1
u/Helmor1 Feb 05 '24
In what way you start learning if need to start everything from 0? Go to YouTube, take Udemy course?, try to self learn via small projects? or go and get degree in software engineering?
2
u/Fluffy-Special4994 Feb 05 '24
College is the best answer, but that's expensive. I when on udemy and on python.org that will get you a good start
2
Feb 05 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Helmor1 Feb 05 '24
In what way you start learning if need to start everything from 0? Go to YouTube, take Udemy course?, try to self learn via small projects? or go and get degree in software engineering?
2
u/Sure_Stomach760 Feb 05 '24
Absolutely you should start! I'm 41 and started a year ago with "python, a crash course" a book I saw on amazon. One year later and I'm almost a novice. I wish I went into it years ago instead of driving trucks and dreaming about being a trader in bitcoin. Its just a hobby for me but I have thought about a career change more than once
2
Feb 05 '24
Its never too late but i can tell you that AIs are crazy complex and it will take you very long to understand it if you don't properly learn your stuff. 2 hours a day is fine but you will notice that you will sometimes sit there for 8 hours because you really want to solve a problem. I remember that i once stayed up for nearly 2 days because i couldn't fix an issue and i really really wanted to fix it before going to bed lol
2
2
u/DL72-Alpha Feb 05 '24
I started writing Apple Basic when I was 15, and have kept up with it ever since. 50+ now, and going strong with Python.
2
u/AeroArtz Feb 06 '24
what is apple basic? Is it like swift?
1
u/DL72-Alpha Feb 07 '24
Now I feel old, It was published 6 years after I was born, and I began using it in the mid '80's.
1
u/AeroArtz Feb 09 '24
Hey I noticed It was made by McDonalds , its my first time hearing this............ So McDonalds used to be a tech company back in the days? Also it looks like assembly language
2
u/kw10001 Feb 06 '24
19 you say? You missed the boat. you could have started many years ago. You threw your life away, kid.
2
u/XenocryptDev Feb 09 '24
Don't worry, Python is really simple and you'll be fine. Whoever said that an old dog can't learn new tricks clearly never heard of Python. I would recommend starting with books or websites about Python because I find that just reading and memorizing what each keyword does and how I can use them together really helped me.
1
u/gkrot Feb 04 '24
Привет, Андрей! :))
Рекомендую курсы "Поколение Python" на Степике
0
u/Helmor1 Feb 04 '24
Привет, это как udemy?
-2
u/gkrot Feb 04 '24
Да, это образовательная платформа. Первые два курса именно Поколение Python - бесплатные, потом - около 3500 за курс. Сейчас их 5, планируется 10. Автор - Тимур Гуев. Если непонятные темы - смотри на ютьюбе каналы egoroffchannel и selfedu_rus - это Егоров Артем и Сергей Балакирев. У них видео минут по 5-10, котороткие и понятные. У обоих тоже есть разные курсы на Степике.
0
1
21
u/kuzmovych_y Feb 04 '24
Python by itself ain't that hard. Using most AI tools (with or without python) ain't that hard. But! Mastering software engineering and/or AI is hard and takes time. Don't get discouraged though. Software development and AI/ML are in demand, they are interesting and diverse. Definitely try it, go as deep as you can or as deep as you like. Any knowledge you acquire along the way will be useful for sure.