Books or video tutorial: the best way to learn coding? - xcoding
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akulbe
I think the answer is "yes". In other words, _both_.

I'm only speaking for myself here, when I say the following things... for me,
I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to learning.

This happens first and foremost by getting _distracted_ with social media
(Facebook, Twitter, HN).

To quote Cal Newport (an author who speaks on this _very thing_ ) from his
book Deep Work. "To learn hard things quickly you must focus intensely without
distraction."*

So let's say you're not aiming to be quick about learning to code,
necessarily. It still follows that not being distracted is key.

I think covering both books and video helps you get information from multiple
inputs, and covers different learning styles. ANYTHING to get the concepts
cemented in your head.

Most of all, do what you can to learn in an environment where you're not
bombarded by many things designed to distract you.

I recommend this book. I'm in the process of reading it now, myself. I feel
like he's talking directly to me, and that I could have been MUCH more
effective in both learning and work, had I discovered this MUCH sooner.

Good luck. I'd be curious to hear how you're making progress on your learning
journey.

*Newport, C. (Grand Central, 2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World [Kindle version, page 36]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

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yogeshwarHN
Both actually.

Speaking for myself... I start with video. It is easier to find, easier to
follow and easier to implement. Now when you finish with video course, search
for "best" or "amazing" book for that particular language or framework.

Because of video course introduction, most part of the book will be like "seen
somewhere" or "read somewhere". so the reading of book becomes tolerable and
more understanding.

Bottom line, (I believe ) Video courses are never enough and books are long
and difficult. So, start with video course and finish it with a book.

IMP point : practice while going through the whole process.

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ozzmotik
I'm more of the type to prefer textual content. A lot easier to scan through
and process at your own pace than video content that you naturally are
expected to perceive in a time-based manner.

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lake99
Depends on what I'm trying to learn. If it's a programming language, or
something math-heavy, I prefer books. If it's GUI programming, I prefer
videos. I tried learning Android programming from their official
documentation, and felt lost with all those hyperlinks that made a horrible
directed multicyclic graph. I did not consider books for this because it's a
fast-moving target. I learnt python entirely from their official
documentation.

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tedmiston
It really depends on the person. Personally I like official tutorial webpages
and videos for learning the basics, and books for gaining a deeper context or
best practices.

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sanswork
When I need to learn a new language I tend to buy a book for the first few
chapters so I can learn the basics of the language(variables, control
structures, etc). Then I'll subscribe to whatever the most popular video site
is pick a project I want to implement and start working on it and when I need
to know how to do something look for a video on it and read the transcription
since I don't actually like watching the videos.

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afarrell
When trying to learn programming for the first time, find a book that has lots
of exercises. I used an earlier edition of
[http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/](http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/),
but I've heard that people like "learn python/java/ruby/... the hard way".

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tedyoung
As others have said, both have their place for me.

I like videos that give me a conceptual overview, or tell me the thinking
behind why they coded something in a certain way. For details and reference I
use books (unless it's a fast-changing technology, in which case the
language/tool's docs are where I go), or I need a deeper dive on something
that's not just code.

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kirankn
Videos are a good starting point. But both books and videos are bad since most
stuff is dated. Tech keeps getting updated and you are stuck with the version
you "studied". So, IMO, get started with videos, learn using
books/blogs/stackoverflow etc. but keep revisiting so that you are really on
top of things.

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Tempest1981
To me, books are a great high-bandwidth way to absorb the full breadth of the
topic. Videos are more linear, and slower. But videos can help if you lack
motivation or focus to read books.

But either way, to internalize the learnings requires doing many coding
exercises.

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flukus
Videos can be better for high level content, but books and blogs are better
for code. I say can because producing high quality programming related videos
is rare from what I've seen (do we need something like markdown for videos?).

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alashley
Books can be a pretty lonely way to learn technical material. Videos, much
less so but I find it can take a bit longer to grasp video content because you
always have to be engaged since it is not easily scannable.

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samayshamdasani
I prefer books - or really, just plain old tutorials on the web. I created
[https://enlight.ml](https://enlight.ml) to do just that. Check it out! :)

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rgovind
Text hands down. We can easily scan and skip parts that we do not need. Videos
are such a drain on time and are boring. Its hard to go back and forth.

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ltorruella
Brute Force

