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I started learning to code more seriously about 6mo ago, so I know what your shoes feel like :) There is simply a ton of stuff out there, and following a 3 year plan to cover 15 different languages and frameworks just seems intimidating as hell. Though I agree that it's all important. My advice it to come up with a simple project idea and go and implement it - it doesn't even have to be a 'product' per se, just something fun that will function as a goal for you to work towards. As an example, my first project was making a simple twitter-like feed where you can make posts on a page, they go to a database, and then come back out on the front end dynamically. This might take a great hacker 20min to make, but I think it's a great first project because it lets you see and really visualize how the database<->server<->browser loop works. And I think getting the concepts driving things is really the key. Another great idea is to pick some web service you love that has an API and try to build something fun with it - start with just figuring out how to make a GET request, parse the response, etc, and then build up from there. CodeAcademy is fun and great to start with, but I think because the problems are all structured for you, it shelters you from having to do the most important thing - figure out what you need to know to solve your problem, and how to learn it. If you pick a small project and spend a lot of time on google and stackoverflow trying to find out how to get each step to work, you'll learn a ton, but you'll also learn how to become really resourceful when you're trying to solve a problem. And as for what languages to learn, I think the cool thing is your project will end up driving what you have to (and want to) learn. I'd also add, as an aside: you're 16, so stop worrying about jobs!! Just do stuff that's fun and keep learning, and it'll all work out. |