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Actualize Blog

I just can't learn programming. I don't get it. What is wrong with me?

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Despite the plethora of new coding apps, fun-looking coding tutorials, and even children's coding toys that have emerged in recent years, it's important to state the truth as it is: Coding is complex. Anyone who expects learning to code to be easy is setting an unrealistic expectation for themselves. So, let's just get this out of the way: Learning to code is a complex process.

One...

How Do I Find a Mentor?

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Whether you're just starting out with coding or already a professional software developer, continuing to learn and grow can be difficult when you're out on your own. It may not have occurred to you, though, that you don't necessarily have to fly solo without any guidance whatsoever. Believe it or not, it's possible to find a mentor - someone who can help show you the way and provi...

What is Git?

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You may have seen Git included in various lists of technologies. Is Git a programming language, a framework, or something else entirely? And is Git the same thing as Github (whatever that is)?

While this post will not serve as a Git tutorial, it will explain what Git is on a high level.

In one sentence: Git is command-line-based software that manages version control. Let's...

I Have Only One Hour a Day to Teach Myself Programming. How Should I Use It?

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An hour a day is actually a significant amount of time to learn something new! People assume that one needs to invest a tremendous amount of time to learn to code, and that's actually not the case. It is true that the more time you put in, the faster you'll learn, but if you're okay with a longer timeframe, an hour a day is plenty.

In fact, if you had the choice to spend ten hours...

Is HTML a programming language?

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Technically, HTML is a programming language. In fact, HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Whether or not HTML is a real language is a matter of semantics, and not terribly important.

What is important, though, is to understand that HTML - and CSS, for that matter - are quite different than most other languages, and that it's difficult to get a bi...