Carving pathways in your brain
Earlier this year (March), I took up learning programming again. I started with Python, but then went to C# when I got annoyed at how loose-y goose-y Python was1. I crave structure and explicit instructions, so I guess that's why I gravitated toward C#.
I'd already casually studied Python and C# both several years ago, but kind of fell out of it. It occurred to me that since high school (which is admittedly a long time ago now), I hadn't really learned a new skill. I've learned things, of course (here's looking at the countless hours I've spent perusing you, Wikipedia), and I've revisited old interests, but this is the first time in a long time I'm actively investing and learning something I had no real prior experience with.2
This made me feel weird. Like, literally — physically. When I spent hours going over courses and struggling through solutions, I would come out of it feeling like the material had been scored upon my brain. It's been so long since I've taken traditional classes so I can't remember if I used to feel like this before but it's a WILD sensation.
When reading about forming habits, I've heard that repetition was the act of carving pathways through your brain so that you would naturally exhibit the repeated behaviour eventually because it was the most travelled pathway. Or something like that. I don't know if I internalized that concept and really ran with it, but I swear the more I learn C#, the more I can feel those new and foreign concepts etching themselves into my brain.
... Or maybe I'm crazy! That's a possibility too.
There's nothing wrong with how flexible Python is. In fact, I think it's admirable how quickly you can spin up applications and really see your progress. I just think the syntax wasn't for me.↩
I've had prior experience with web languages like HTML and some CSS. I didn't have any formal education with any of that though, and it was a lot of trial and error every few months. As the accessibility of the Internet has grown, the pure plethora of teaching material available makes learning so much easier, though!↩