Why People Fail at Learning to Code?
Summary
TLDRUncle Steph emphasizes that the biggest obstacle to success in software development or any career isn't intellectual but psychological. He discusses how insecurities, impostor syndrome, and fear of failure hold people back. Steph introduces 'Lizard Wizard,' a course to understand and control the 'lizard brain,' which can cause anxiety and hinder progress. He suggests practical solutions like working out, trying new things, and embracing failure as a learning opportunity. The video encourages viewers to manage their lizard brain and not let it dictate their success.
Takeaways
- 🧠 The biggest obstacle to success as a developer is not intellectual but psychological.
- 🐉 Understanding and mastering the 'lizard brain' is crucial for overcoming insecurities and fears.
- 🔄 The lizard brain's protective instincts can lead to anxiety and fear of failure in modern contexts.
- 🧘♂️ Learning to calm down and not make decisions based on immediate emotions is important.
- 💪 Regular exercise can help manage the lizard brain and reduce anxiety.
- 🌐 Exposing oneself to new experiences and environments can help adapt the lizard brain to modern life.
- 💻 When learning to code, intentionally breaking code to understand errors can train the brain to handle mistakes.
- 🚀 As a developer, embrace the process of building apps without worrying about immediate success.
- 📈 Failure in projects is a valuable learning experience and helps eliminate unproductive paths.
- 🏫 The traditional educational system's fear of failure can hinder real-world success, where mistakes are part of the process.
- 👨🏫 Uncle Steph mentors in software development, coding, freelancing, and business, offering resources to overcome psychological barriers.
Q & A
What is the main problem people face when trying to succeed as a developer?
-The main problem people face is psychological, not intellectual. Issues such as insecurities, impostor syndrome, laziness, and fear of failure are common hurdles.
What is the 'lizard brain' mentioned in the script?
-The 'lizard brain' refers to the part of the brain responsible for instinctual and emotional responses. It is called 'lizard brain' because it is a very primitive part of the brain that has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
What is the 'Lizard Wizard' course about?
-The 'Lizard Wizard' course is designed to help people understand the mechanisms behind their emotional brain and how to apply practical skills to unlock their full potential.
How can one calm down their 'lizard brain'?
-One can calm down their 'lizard brain' by counting to 10, working out regularly, exposing themselves to new stimuli, and learning to not make decisions based on emotions.
What is the significance of breaking code when learning to code?
-Breaking code on purpose can teach you more about coding, especially in terms of logical structures. It helps you understand error messages and realize that making mistakes is not the end of the world.
Why should developers not worry about writing perfect code when building new apps?
-Developers should not worry about writing perfect code initially because they are likely to change things if the app is successful. It's better to get a prototype out quickly and learn from the process.
What attitude should developers have when exploring new ideas?
-Developers should embrace the process of building and creating, without worrying about the outcome. They should be willing to try new things and learn from the experience, even if it doesn't work out.
What is the advice given for dealing with the fear of failure?
-The advice is to remember all the times you thought something would go wrong and it didn't. It's about not sweating the small stuff and understanding that failure is part of the process.
How does the educational system affect people's fear of making mistakes?
-The educational system often trains people to fear making mistakes because the consequences can be significant, like failing a test or class. However, in real life, making mistakes is part of the learning process.
What is the final tip given in the script about overcoming the 'lizard brain'?
-The final tip is to expose yourself to new things, remind yourself that failure is okay, and don't let your 'lizard brain' get in the way of your goals.
What resources does Uncle Steph offer for those interested in software development and coding?
-Uncle Steph offers mentorship in software development, coding, freelancing, and starting businesses through his website uncle.com.
Outlines
🧠 Overcoming the Psychological Barriers to Success
Uncle Steph begins by addressing the psychological challenges developers face in their careers, emphasizing that success is not limited by intellectual capacity but by psychological factors such as insecurities and fear of failure. He introduces the concept of the 'lizard brain' and explains its role in causing anxiety and fear. Steph suggests that understanding and managing the lizard brain is crucial for overcoming these obstacles. He also mentions his course 'Lizard Wizard' designed to help individuals grasp the mechanisms of their emotional brain. The paragraph concludes with advice on how to control the lizard brain, such as counting to ten to calm down, working out, and exposing oneself to new experiences to reduce fear of the unknown.
🚀 Embracing Failure as a Path to Success
In this paragraph, Uncle Steph discusses the mindset required for developers who want to be entrepreneurial. He uses an example of a woman with multiple project ideas who is worried about the outcomes. Steph advises embracing the process of building apps or products without fear of failure. He encourages quick prototyping and learning from failures, stressing that it's better to fail fast than to invest a lot of time in something that doesn't work. He shares his own experiences with failed business ideas and emphasizes that failure is a learning opportunity and a way to eliminate non-viable options. The paragraph ends with a reminder to not let the fear of failure, instilled by traditional education systems, hinder one's progress.
🌟 Final Thoughts on Managing the Lizard Brain
Uncle Steph concludes the video script by reiterating the importance of not letting the 'lizard brain' impede one's journey to success. He encourages viewers to learn from past experiences where feared outcomes did not materialize, suggesting that it's part of the process to reach one's goals. He also invites viewers to visit his website, uncle.com, for more mentorship in software development, coding, freelancing, and business. The paragraph ends with a call to action for viewers to comment, share the video if they find it valuable, and to give feedback.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Psychological
💡Impostor Syndrome
💡Lizard Brain
💡Anxiety
💡Fear of Failure
💡Emotional Brain
💡Adaptation
💡Mental Capability
💡Exploratory Developer
💡Error Messages
💡Prototype
Highlights
The biggest problem people have in their career is psychological, not intellectual.
People have more than enough mental capability to succeed in whatever they want to do.
Insecurities, impostor syndrome, laziness, and fear of failure are common psychological hurdles.
Understanding the 'lizard brain' or emotional brain is key to overcoming psychological barriers.
The 'lizard brain' is powerful but often misunderstood in modern society.
Anxiety about exams or failing at tasks is a byproduct of the lizard brain's protective instincts.
Learning to calm down is a practical skill to manage the lizard brain.
Counting to 10 is a simple method to distract the lizard brain and prevent rash decisions.
Regular exercise can help manage lizard brain emotions.
Exposing oneself to new stimuli and environments can help adapt the lizard brain to modern life.
In software development, learning a new language or database can help overcome fear of failure.
Breaking code on purpose can teach more about coding and help the lizard brain adapt to mistakes.
Embracing the process of building apps and not worrying about the outcome is crucial for developers.
Building apps quickly and learning from failure is more valuable than perfecting an untested idea.
The educational system often teaches fear of failure, which is detrimental in the real world.
Successful people view failure as a learning opportunity and part of the process.
Uncle Steph mentors in software development, coding, freelancing, and starting businesses.
The video encourages viewers not to let their lizard brain get in the way of their goals.
Transcripts
hey guys Uncle Steph here how you doing
so what is the number one problem that
people have when trying to succeed as a
developer in their career just about
everything in life it's not intellectual
it is not intellectual for what I've
seen the biggest problem people have is
psychological so chances are if you're
watching this video like there's a 99.9%
chance that you're watching this video
have more than enough mental capability
to be able to succeed in whatever it is
you want to do the biggest hurdle people
have again to reiterate is psychological
it's insecurities it's impostor syndrome
it's laziness it's fear of failure these
are so so common that's why a couple
years ago I put out a course called
Lizard wizard which helps you to
understand the mechanisms behind your
emotional brain your lizard
brain I call it lizard wizard because
once you understand how your lizard
brain works and you and you apply
practical skills you unlock your full
potential the lizard brain is very
powerful but most people are running
around not
understanding how it works what are the
mechanisms of the lizard brain because
of our Advanced society and culture you
have to
learn how to work with it uh a little
bit more than you would have you know
100 thousand years ago when we lived in
the woods you see the lizard brain
without going down this rabbit held too
much evolved over hundreds of thousands
of years during very primitive times not
when we had computers and smartphon so
the lizard
brain though very effective it's always
trying to protect you it can get you in
trouble so you can start having anxiety
about exams anxiety about
failing uh when you know writing a piece
of code and worry that it doesn't work
and having kittens over that this is a a
byproduct an artifact a glitch if you
will
based on programming that was developed
before any of this was around so you
have to in a nutshell learn to get past
that learn to get past
that if you're broke big part of it is
probably because your lizard brain is
out of control if you have anxieties
it's just your lizard brain as I've said
in many videos think of all the times in
your life where you had some fear about
something some anxiety about something
that could happen happens to me and then
nothing happens that is our lizard brain
out of control not yet fully adapted to
the environment the modern environment
that we're in so the point of this video
is to encourage you to help you
understand that your emotions your fears
your anxieties your imposter syndrome
Etc and so on they're all just they're
all just byproducts of your lizard brain
ve veeg is not perfectly adapted to the
environment so there are very ver things
you can do you can learn to calm down
first of all there's an old uh I don't
know if you call it expression or
something but we used to say if you get
angry count to 10 why counting to 10
because it distracts your lizer brain
slows you down calms you down and uh so
you won't make rash
decisions about uh anything that's the
worst thing you can do don't make
decisions based on emotion most of the
time that's is going to get you in
trouble so one of the things you can do
to get a hold of your lizard emotions is
to uh work out believe it or not
training working out on a regular basis
is going to help in that regard there's
no question about that another thing you
can do is expose yourself to new
stimulus new environments visit a
different town go go to even to a
different restaurant you haven't been
been before you want to try new things
you want to explore new things so in the
in the world of software development try
learning a new language uh try a new
database um don't be worried about
making mistakes as I say when you're
learning how to code one are the tips I
give in terms of accelerating the
process of learning to code what are the
tips that I give is that you should
break your code once you get the code
working break it see what happens look
at the error
messages first of all this is going to
teach you more about coding uh in terms
of The Logical structures of the code
when you you purposefully break it at a
particular point and you see the error
that's generated this is going to help
you put two and two together you're
going to figure out oh if I get this
type of error it's it's probably because
of this type of mistak in my code the
secondary impact of that is that you are
training your lizard brain to realize
that if you make an error writing code
it's not the end of the world it's no
big
deal so last week in the uh mentoring
group meetings we have our bi-weekly
coaching sessions
links below we had somebody who had a
whole bunch of projects in mind so she's
capable she can write code she can build
apps Now with uh what was she using I
think she was using react she knows
react knows a bit of rails and she's
learning
laravel so she was telling the group and
our we have group chats so she was
telling us oh Steph well she wasn't
exact she was actually quite calm but
she said Steph you know I have all the I
have did I have these different ideas I
would like to explore but she was a
little
worried um about just whether the
outcome would be positive or not that's
the opposite attitude you have to
have when you are an exploratory
developer an entrepreneurial developer
you have to embrace the process of
trying to build an app trying to create
a web app a SAS product whatever it is
and and not worry about whether or not
it's going to
work that's why I say when you're
building new apps from scratch you
should build them as quickly as
possible don't worry about writing Rock
Solid code because you're probably going
to have to change things if it has any
success so why waste your time writing
super solid uh bulletproof code but
takes a lot more time then you have to
tear it all apart anyway so just get it
out so hi toor you got it's great you
have these great ideas put them out put
them out see what happens you know and
uh doesn't matter if they mess up even
if you put in 50 hours 100 hours to get
a prototype out 200 hours 500 hours to
get a prototype out and it doesn't work
as a business model people are just not
interested it's not a failure because
you are first of all you're going to be
learning a lot along the way which is
always valuable and second of all you're
going to be eliminating options and
variables which eventually will lead you
to uh to a place as
successful I have tried many different
app ideas many different business ideas
throw them out quickly as they say in
the VC World The Venture Capital World
fail quickly fail quickly you don't want
to
spend you know years on a project to
only find out if it's going to fail you
want it to fail as soon as possible
within months if possible so if it fails
great this is not working here I I did
this wrong here move on to the next
thing so yeah and that again all goes
back to the original premise of this
video why what is the number one people
people have is not intellectual it's uh
it's all psychological it's all lizard
brain so I'll leave you with this last
tip remember remember all the things
that you thought would go wrong and
never did so don't sweat it okay one
last tip you know one of the reasons we
are like this is because of the
educational system you know how it is
with
schools if you fail particular tests you
fail a particular class it could have a
detrimental impact in terms of your
entire career this to me as somebody
who's been involved in education pretty
uh pretty closely for 14 years
now uh this to me is
stupid the most successful people try
something fail try again fail try again
fail try again fail I then neate it and
the problem with the school system is
over whatever it is two decades
approximately depending how far you
go you are literally trained to the core
to fear making a mistake because the
cost of that mistake is could be pretty
substantial in the school system in real
life if you uh you if you're smart about
how you proceed you don't want to do
stupid stuff like jumping off a cliff or
something but you know if you're smart
about what you do yeah little mistakes
are just part of the process no big
deal one of uh my mentors accidental
mentors back in the day when I was a
young uh
entrepreneur I remember coming into a
meeting with him and he ran a very big
company it was worth about 50 million in
that money and uh he asked me he said so
he said he said Steph Uncle Steph he
said no he said actually cousin Steph I
was quite young then he said cousin
Steph uh have you ever gone bankrupt I
said no taking a back a little
embarrassed right no me bankrupt
no he said oh I've been bankrupt a few
times part of the game H I had another
guy he's worth even
more and he said the same thing pretty
much businesses go bust you got to roll
with the punches you got to throw out
ideas things will work some things won't
work uh it's all about managing
everything so that uh you end up you
keep on making progress towards your
goals so there you go don't let your
lizard brain get in the way of where you
want to go start learning to master it
again EX ize exposing yourself to new
things reminding yourself that when
things don't work that's okay because
it's part of the process of getting to
where you want to go that's it for now
I'm Uncle Steph I Mentor people in
software development coding I teach
people how to freelance how to start
businesses and so much more you can
check out uncle.com
and uh yeah that's about it if you have
any questions any comments about this
video you know what to do comment below
and and if you think this V video is
valuable don't be afraid to share it
with friends if you don't like my video
or you think my hair is too long give me
two thumbs down not one but two thumbs
down and uh that's it cheers
[Music]
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