How to start learning a new skill- Mobile App Development
Everyone yearns to learn new skills. Learning new skills has become a top priority for many people these days. But, where the fantasy shatters is on the question “How should I start?”. This is a very confusing question and a dealbreaker for many new learners out there. We don’t know how to start, what resources to follow, whose advice to take, and who’s not.
In this article, I will try to make it easy for the enthusiastic people out there who want to learn Mobile App Development but face many issues starting. It is a common saying that “All is well that ends well.” But, I would like to redefine that statement for this situation “All is well that starts well.” I remember in my case, I was in between the Covid Lockdown during the summer of 2020 and preparing for JEE. I had got bored of reading the same thing again and again. So, I decided to learn something new. It was an experiment for me. What I did was I initially began working on a project.
I learned according to the requirements of the project. Though, I would not recommend this to a complete beginner. Working on a project to learn new things is an excellent way to learn but not recommended for any new learner. It did work for me as I had prior knowledge of JAVA, which was the language I had used to code in Android. Within 15 days of starting Android, I had a completely working app, waiting to be published to the Play Store. When I started, the codebase looked very overwhelming to me too. Also, sometimes I had thoughts of quitting. I thought this was not made for me. There were bugs on which I had worked 2–3 days completely to solve. But the feeling of finally fixing those issues can not be explained in words.
There is a tonne of resources available on the internet. You can take courses for free, watch tutorials on YouTube to start on with Mobile App Development. We are not expected to understand everything in the codebase of App Development. We work with just what we want to develop. There is so much code present, that it might look very overwhelming if you try to understand all. Just remember, this process requires time. Give yourself some time to get familiarized with the structure. Once you start working on it, you will face immense bugs and errors. As a beginner, you might feel dejected if not be able to solve these. But you can always look up any mistakes on the internet. StackOverflow is the Mecca of developers. Try to use it as much as possible. Just copy any error you get and paste it in google, or you can manually search for mistakes too. Most people don’t know how to use google for their benefit. In fact, Googling is itself a skill nowadays. The community of developers is so vast that any bug you get has already been encountered by someone earlier, and most probably someone has solved it too. Never hesitate to look for solutions on the internet. We get to learn many new things by this too.
From my experience, what I can say is that confidence is a game-changer in this arena. Earlier, when I was not so confident about mobile development, I used to think that I cannot build this app or solve this bug that I have encountered or learn any new topic. I thought it would very hard. But, as I kept practicing, I gained confidence in myself. Now that, whenever I am to learn any new topic or fix any bug, my confidence drives me to complete that task. I might know deep down that the task will be challenging for me, but I know there are many resources and help out there. Somehow, I will be able to do it. Just have confidence in yourself and have patience. Sometimes, when you might feel that you cannot take it anymore, it is okay to take a break, maybe for a couple of days or more. It eventually gets better.
So what are the main takeaways from this:
- Look up resources and solutions on the internet. Never hesitate in doing that.
- Don’t overthink and just give it a start. God helps those who help themselves.
- Have faith in yourself. If any thought of quitting comes to your mind, then just think about why you started in the first place.
Thank you for reading. You can reach out to me via Instagram at sahil.void