anytime i encountered any error message or resistance from the system, i didn’t start getting a headache, feeling like i was in quicksand with no way out. i just pasted the errors in and it told me in patient simple english what to do. i feel like i’ve been blessed by an angel. i learned a coding technique without being driven to extreme suicidal ideation [i’m doing way better now after finishing at a nicer school] by arrogant, reticent TAs with no desire to help, gatekeeping administration that practically brag about how many students they can weed out of the program, ridiculous exams designed to stratify the class rather than give students a platform to prove themselves, tedious pointless busywork for the sake of busywork…
all that to say — learning doesn’t have to be hard or a rIgOrOUs chAlLenge for it to be effective. beyond pissed and forever indignant at the genuine not-kidding whiplash-2018-style hell i was put through over coding.
I sometimes look back on what it took for me to learn c programming from a book (K&R) using a free compiler then, later, figuring out some way to obtain and install Linux so I could use gcc, etc.
I don’t think everyone should have a go through that. The Internet was, in part, built so we don’t have to do crap like that. Now you can focus on doing what you want or need to do much faster.