How I Would Learn To Code (If I Could Start\u00a0Over)
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So, coding is a very valuable skill that will earn you more money, not to mention it\u2019s really fun.<\/p>\n I have been coding professionally now for 4 years, working as a data scientist and machine learning engineer and in this post, I will explain how I would learn to code if I had to do it all over again.<\/p>\n I still remember the time I wrote my first bit of code. The professor explained that computation is an integral part of modern physics as it allows us to run large-scale simulations of everything from subatomic particle collisions to the movement of galaxies.<\/p>\n It sounded amazing.<\/em><\/p>\n And the way we started this process was by going through a textbook to learn Fortran.<\/p>\n Yes, you heard that right.<\/em><\/p>\n My first programming language was Fortran<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, specifically Fortran 90. In that first lab session, I remember writing \u201cHello World\u201d as is the usual rite of passage and thinking, \u201cBig woop.\u201d<\/p>\n This is how you write \u201cHello World\u201d in Fortran in case you are interested.\u00a0<\/p>\n I actually really struggled to code in Fortran and didn\u2019t do that well on tests we had, which put me off coding.<\/p>\n I still have some old coding projects<\/a> in Fortran on my GitHub that you can check out.<\/p>\n Looking back, the learning curve to coding is quite steep, but it really does compound, and eventually, it will just click.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t realise this at the time and actively avoided programming modules in my physics degree, which I regret in hindsight as my progress would have been much quicker.<\/p>\n During my third year, I had to do a research placement as part of my master\u2019s. The company I chose to work for\/with used a graphical programming language called LabVIEW<\/a> to run and manage their experiments.<\/p>\n LabVIEW is based on something called \u201cG\u201d and taught me to think of programming differently than script-based.<\/p>\n However, I haven\u2019t used it since and probably never will, but it was cool to learn then.<\/p>\n I did enjoy the research year somewhat, but the pace at which research moves, at least in physics, is painfully slow. Nothing like the \u201cheyday\u201d from the early 20th century I envisioned.<\/p>\n One day after work a video was recommended to me on my YouTube home page.<\/p>\n For those of you unaware, this was a documentary about DeepMind\u2019s AI AlphaGo that beat the best GO player in the world. Most people thought that an AI could never be good at GO.<\/p>\n From the video, I started to understand how AI worked and learn about neural networks, reinforcement learning, and deep learning. Ultimately, this is when I started studying for a career in Data Science<\/a> and machine learning, where I needed to teach myself Python and SQL.<\/p>\n This is where I so-called \u201cfell in love\u201d with coding. I then became a data scientist for three years and am now a Machine Learning<\/a> engineer. During this time, I worked extensively with Python and SQL.<\/p>\n Until a few months ago, those were the only programming languages I knew. I did learn other tools, such as bash\/z-shell, AWS, docker, data bricks, snowflake, etc. but not any other \u201cproper\u201d programming languages.<\/p>\n In my spare time, I dabbled a bit with C a couple of years ago, but I have forgotten virtually all of it now. I have some basic scripts<\/a> on my GitHub if you are interested.<\/p>\n However, in my new role that I started a couple of months ago, I will be using Rust and GO, which I am very much looking forward to learning.<\/p>\n If you are interested in my entire journey to becoming a data scientist and machine learning engineer, you can read about it below:<\/em><\/p>\nMy journey<\/h2>\n
It was 9am on the first day of my physics undergrad, and we were in the computer lab.<\/p>\n
I learned DO loops before FOR loops. I am definitely a rarity in this case.<\/p>\nprogram hello\nprint *, 'Hello World!'\nend program hello<\/code><\/pre>\n
I found it all so interesting, similar to physics research in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
I saw its real potential in actually solving problems, but the main thing was that I had a motivated reason to learn. I was studying to break into a career I wanted to be in, which really drove me.<\/p>\n