Dear Linus, can you please reply to my messages

What is the best programming language or what should you start to learn first? What framework or toolset is the best for a beginner? Do I pick Python first? Or Java?

I see and hear a lot of those questions. Sometimes I even get asked these. And even with no credibility to give an expert answer, I always reply: “It really does not matter, just fucking start doing”.

Why it is important to do (and learn) something hard

Personally, learning to program has been a critical part of my personal development. Seriously. I did not have the typical upbringing or even that of a supporting one. There was no “let’s check the homework together” and no holding hands when facing problems. This resulted in a very low-confidence in my skills, as I spent my school years being just okayish in every subject there was. And as a result of that, I never got to really value learning or the art or trying to learn.

One of the biggest turning points in my mindset was the time that I spent countless hours learning to code.

Kind of surprisingly, one of the biggest turning points in my mindset was the time that I spent countless hours learning to code. Regardless of what some coding prodigy’s say, programming is hard, vigorous, and sometimes very frustrating. You need to spend many and many more hours staring at your screen looking at one piece of text while often thinking “what the hell am I doing with my life, I’m too dumb for this shit”.

I programmed my first command line text adventure, which actually had only three steps to complete — but anyways, I felt like a programming God.

But because the learning curve of programming is somewhat endless, no one feels that they are expert programmers, even with years of experience. The framework or the programming language you begin with is not the most important piece of the puzzle — all of them have almost the same principles behind them. What you should learn is the core concepts, paradigms, patterns, and reasons why some technologies are built the way that they are built.

Learning programming has helped me understand how much effort learning actually takes. It’s not like stealing candy from a baby, it takes time and effort to learn and at some point, to excel in something.

Learning programming has helped me understand how much effort learning actually takes.

So why am I writing about my learning history? I truly believe that especially in the “techworld”, or whatever the best subordinate is for people creating things with technology, one thing is for sure; you need to constantly update your skills whilst keeping up with the latest and the greatest. Otherwise, you will look like the mainframe from the 90’s. Therefore, tying this all smoothly to Junction, we’re expanding Junction to start with a day dedicated for learning, networking and getting to know a lot of new stuff:

What is Hack\Talks?

This year, Junction is expanding to have an additional speaker day, called Hack\Talks, meant to provide top notch keynotes which will wow the participants with knowledge, entertainment and latest research on the field. The day will cover subjects like machine learning, web development, serverless design, edge computing, graphics and much more. Because there is a lot to be learned.

We have combined our forces with organisers from SyysGraph, which is a well-respected conference specialising in latest research in graphics field. The organisers of SyysGraph, Ville “Wili” Miettinen and Jaakko Lehtinen are both well established themselves on the field. Jaakko is behind the game Max Payne and was a significant contributor to Payne’s game engine while Wili has created one of the first commercial graphics engines. In other words, they rock.

In addition to talks, Hack\Talks is a great networking opportunity (all you techies, do not underestimate the power of networks!) and we have taken care of that participants can meet and greet during and after the event. This is a chance to meet the people that you probably would not be able to meet otherwise.

I am one of the main organisers of Hack\Talks. Hack\Talks is one of these projects that has been impacted by my efforts learn to code. I understand that there is a continuous need for learning. Technologies are advancing so rapidly we need to constantly be aware of the new advancements on the field. Hack\Talks is not only meant to be educational; people need a break from their everyday work and enjoy a little from more light-hearted keynotes. We are aiming high to provide the best experience that any tech conference has ever offered and I believe we have the capabilities, ambition and of course willingness to learn on the process. Cool shit coming up!

Ps: Dear Linus Torvalds, could you please respond to my messages, we have a great keynote opportunity for you 😉

WHAT: Hack\Talks
WHEN: 23.11.2017, at 5pm onwards
WHERE: Finlandia Hall
FOR WHOM: Everybody interested in technology, with willingness to learn and create something meaningful + We have also reserved a great amount of tickets for Junction participants for free of charge!

Want to be the first to know about Junction 2017? Subscribe to our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cCc-lj

hackjunction.com
www.facebook.com/hackjunction
www.twitter.com/hackjunction
www.instagram.com/hackjunction