Whatever you learn, it's important to put that into practice

Chris Pine (author of 'Learn to Program') said, "Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out."

I realized this when I was a 1st year engineering student in Bhopal (India) and wanted to attend a hackathon that was being hosted in another university.

On the day of the event, I was the only one from my university there. I wouldn't say I was very skilled but I couldn't miss it, because I knew I might not win the prize but surely I'd meet new people and learn something new, no matter how big or small.

I created a simple app and managed to clear the 1st level screening, in the second round I had to explain my solution to one of the judges. While he was checking my app, I kept explaining to him every step I had taken while building that app.

He clicked a button and then there were three dots moving from left to right in a loop. I said, "because it takes some time to fetch the data, I included this progress indicator to let the user know that something is happening.."

He looked up.. he seemed a little surprised. I had learned about progress indicators and many other UI controls just a few days before the hackathon.

As it turned out, he was happy to see me learning new things and using them in my projects. He didn't tell me this but I could understand because I had won the 3rd prize!

Whatever you learn, it's important to put that into practice because each small win will inspire you to learn more. Its always good to have a positive mindset and energy while you are learning.

And most importantly, don't give up! Errors will occur, and small typos could trip you up for hours, but this is all part of the learning process.

You don't have to learn everything at once, just a little progress every day and you will be good to go 👍