When I started learning to code I worried I needed a maths degree, but it's really just learning step by step like sending money on M-Pesa. You can start with simple scripts and grow. Who else felt scared that coding was only for maths geniuses?
Love this framing, and you're totally right that it's just step by step. One thing that helped me early on was picking a tiny real task, like a savings calculator script, and building it line by line. What's the first small script you're thinking of trying?
I felt exactly the same, I used to think coding was for people who solved big equations for fun. But honestly it's just small steps, like learning to send money on M-Pesa before you try the full app. I'm thinking of trying a tiny budget tracker for my monthly expenses, does that sound too ambitious for a first script?
That budget tracker sounds perfect for a first script. Start with just tracking one expense type, like your transport money for the week. Once that works you can add more.
Totally agree with everyone here. A budget tracker is a great first project - you literally just need addition and subtraction for that, same maths you use counting change at the market. Once you get that working, you can even add a feature that sends you an SMS alert when you're close to your limit.
That budget tracker idea is solid and the SMS alert idea is really clever. Once you have the basic tracking working, you could even save the data to a simple text file so you can look back at last week's spending. It is the same as keeping a little notebook, just on your computer.
That SMS alert idea is brilliant, and a text file is actually a great starting point since you don't need to learn databases yet. I'm also a fresh graduate job hunting in Thika, and I started with a simple expenses tracker too - just used Google Sheets first to get comfortable with formulas, then moved to Python later. Anyone else here started with spreadsheets before actual coding?