There are plenty of misconceptions and myths surrounding the art of programming. Many view it as a job only for the very gifted; the process, methodical, the rewards, glorious. A career path only for geeks, or for the mathematically inclined, and a job not tolerant of mistakes.

In this post we are going to debug, explore and fix these misconceptions about being a programmer, and maybe serve as a source of relief for those who are wondering if programming is the career path for them. If you have any other myths to add to the list, name them in the comments section below.

Read Also: Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding (Interactively) Online

1. I Have To Master Mathematics To Learn Programming Languages

People confuse of the relationship between mathematics and programming because they want a flat out answer of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. In reality, the answer is more towards "it depends, but mostly not". As a programmer, we spend most of our time writing code, not Math formulas, and your knowledge in Math is not directly proportional to your programming skill.

Don’t get me wrong though, we still need basic algebra, but it’s basic, and well, it’s just algebra. Besides, there are libraries and plugins, which you can apply directly into your code to help you solve mathematical and algorithmic problems.

However, if you are trying to create stuff that require advanced mathematical calculations or physics or computer graphics, you certainly need to master some Mathematics (but not to worry, there are tons of physics and graphics solutions in the industry already).

2. I Must Be A Genius (With An IQ OF 160)

It does not matter if your IQ is 160 or 90, programming is not related to biological factors, but your interest. If you have taken tests to determine your IQ score, know that it does little to identify what you like to do or how far you can get based purely on a test score.

I’m not a MENSA member but I do have 4 years of programming experience, and I can program simply because I don’t mind failing repeatedly, and learning from my mistakes, which is basically how programmers learn anyways.

Now to put a threshold on this, anyone who knows how to communicate, can learn programming. Because deep in its core, programming is a "language" with its own grammar & vocabulary, and its existence is purely to help you communicate with machine to complete a certain purpose or action, just like what we do to every human. It’s really that straightforward.

3. I Have To Go To University To Learn To Code

They say in order to max up your coding kung-fu, you need a true master to guide your path. And at the pinnacle of that hierarchy is the label of Professor (that’s about as high as you can go, in your study of anything). But these, days, and thanks to the Internet, you can learn how to program from kind and enthusiastic programmers, with zero involvement from university lecturers.

Pick a beginner course in interactive learning websites like Codecademy, or read tutorial sites like Nettuts+ that have clear explanations in both text and video formats. Have a problem and want direct answer? Stack Overflow and Stackexchange are your best friends. Google searches can help you make the right connections (and let’s ont forget we have plenty of development resources for you here as well).

Look, we’re not saying that universities can’t teach you anything. A professor or lecturer can certainly speed up your understanding of theories and concepts such as Object Oriented Programming, and there are few critical advantages you need to take into account too.

But regardless the path you choose, it’s best for you to master your self-learning ability because unlike most industries, programming is always evolving at a very fast pace, and only you can determine whether you can keep up.

4. I Must Be An Adult To Learn Programming Languages

Parents, please don’t use your child’s age as a deterrent for them to learn programming languages, and that’s not just my personal opinion. At Code.org, there is a petition to demand the insertion of programming as a compulsory school subject, so kids can learn to think analytically.

Nonetheless, there is a difference in the learning model between kids and adults. It’s best for kids to learn in a more visual way, since their visual perception is more developed. For this, Scratch and Alice are the perfect fit for kids to program visually (it’s way way better than ancient programming books).

And if they prefer an interactive environment (because who doesn’t?), the code community like Khan Academy is the place to be. Parents can also help out by staying in the loop with their kids’ progress, and guiding them with explanation, tips and resources, plus the parental support that promotes active learning.

5. I Must Learn Only The Best Language

‘The Best’ Programming language? That’s a little misleading, because the best language for you to learn is the one that fits your current purpose, either for work or study. In other words, there is no best programming language, it depends on what you want to do with it.

There are great programming languages for beginners, though. Python is a good starter due to its simplicity, readability and flexibility. Java is easy to learn too and best of all, it has extensive documentation and a die-hard community, or you can dive intoC# like I did. Afterward, it’s up to you to decide your tools of choice based on the language’s speed, exclusive features, compatibility, maintainability, etc.

6. It Only Takes Weeks To Learn And Master A Programming Language

Don’t believe this tagline. It’s sad to see most aspiring youths trying a programming language for a short time only to find out they cannot create a MMORPG within weeks. Then, they pull the plug, label themselves as ‘not talented’ then give up on the dream of becoming a game programmer.

In truth, you can spend weeks to learn programming, but it takes years to master programming. Like drawing, programming requires an interest and patience, and most of the things you create initially may be of little use. Yet if you keep moving forward, you just have to take it a step at a time. To become a good programmer, you should feel very good every time you fail, because that’s the only way you progress.

7. I Should Memorize All Syntaxes And Avoid Help

The psychology is that, if you program without external guidance, you will memorize everything and become a true pro that can build anything from scratch. But the truth is, you don’t have to worry about memorizing syntaxes, as you’ll be writing the same code for thousands of times before you can flip the table and create a framework yourself.

Google, IDE and Frameworks are not created out of boredom – they are specifically designed to help you pick up programming faster. The best practice is to use IDE with syntax recommendation and consult the Google crystal ball, whenever you run into trouble.

Adopting frameworks help you understand what that programming language does, and what limits it can be pushed to. Then when you have progressed enough, experiment with specific programming features. Explore, blow something up (figuratively) and have fun messing up.

8. I Just Can’t Write That Much Code

I’m one of those people who were scared when I first viewed the source of a web page, because you can bet that 4000 lines of code can be overwhelming. However, while HTML is not a programming language, its content pretty much reflects what every code file contains in general. If you pay attention, you will find that they are just piles of code consisting repetitive statements, methods and loops.

That’s it; programmers mostly use the same stuff you learn in beginner and intermediate course to do both simple and complicated solutions. And once you get used to it, you will feel that 10,000 lines of code is child’s play. It can get addictive very quickly!

9. I Am Woman. I Can’t Code.

At the risk at threading into dangerous waters here, let me straight up say I am a fan of women programmers. The girls in my class owned us in both math and science subjects and my programming career has further substantiated this belief. Women have and always been on top in influential programmer lists, here’s a brief one for you, just to drive the point home:

1. Ada Lovelace was the first programmer in the world.
2. Grace Murray Hopper developed the first compiler for programming language.
3. Adele Goldstine help created the world’s first electronic digital computer.
4. Jean E. Sammet developed FORMAC programming language, a variation of FORTRAN.
5. Marissa Mayer was one of the earliest programmers in Google.

(Image Source: SFGate)

The impact of women in the field of programming is evident, but like how most men aren’t attracted to the perfume industry, the lower ratio of women to men programmers in the field maybe due to other factors such as social and economic pressures as well as different perspectives and interests in life etc.

10. I Can Only Start Making Money Once I have Mastered Programming

Take a glimpse at most job vacancies for programmers, and you can see the demand of several years of experience with tons of other programming languages for the position. But reality is not that harsh. You can always get a programming job equivalent to your programming experience, but you can’t just sit there and wait.

If direct application does not work, an internship is a healthy way to gain work experience and bid for a chance of being a permanent hire, but above all, your work portfolio with impressive showcases of your abilities is where interviewers want to check out. Reputation helps, so start open source project today.

Freelance is also a great place to start because most clients here are far more forgiving (just beware of clients from hell). Either way, there’s always a room for discussion, and everyone has got to start somewhere, but you must do something.

Welcome To The World of Programming!

All in all, programming is just like any other industry, where hard work and determination are your assets for success. So with all the doubts cleared, take your first step and start your first programming lesson today.

Although we are currently leaving in a digital era where everything can be accessed easily, there are many people who still prefer reading long text on paper. There is a chance that a number of your users will print out your content to read offline.

The capability of styling or porting content from web to print has existed for years. We can do this with the @media rule within the stylesheet, as follows:

 @media print { /* Style rules */ } 

There are several properties that allow us to format our web content when porting to print, and we are going to discuss one of it: the Page Break.

What it does?

If you have been working with word processors like Microsoft Word and Pages, you should be familiar with the Page Break menu; this allows you to break your content to the next page.

This module does that; allowing you to control on how your web content should be split, page after page.

Using Page Break

For demonstration purposes, I have created a dummy page that I’m going to print. Here, I have found an unstrategic break, as you can see below.

It would look better if the heading and that orphan starts at the next page.

To do this, we can use the page-break-after property and set the value to always to force the following element to “break” to the next page.

 .page-break { page-break-after: always; } 

Then, you can either create a new element with the class in between the elements, or assign class in the preceding element like so.

 <p class="page-break">With the <strong>Eraser</strong> feature, you can take composites of a photo, then put all of that together, to get the background without the extras you don’t. </p> <h3>The phone to travel With</h3> <p><strong>S Translator </strong>is going to be a great tool for your travels as ... </p> 

Now, you should find the heading and the orphan at the following page.

Widows and Orphans

The method above can be tedious if you have very large amounts of content. So, instead of forcing the content to break, it would be better to set the minimum threshold of the widows and orphans.

In typography, widows and orphans are the unfortunate names used to refer to the left over words or short lines that seem to have been abandoned by the rest of the paragraph on another page.

By using the orphans and widows property, we can specify the threshold. Given the following code example, we can specify at least three lines remain at the bottom or at the beginning of paragraphs where page breaks occur.

 p { orphans: 3; widows: 3; } 

Further Resource

We have discussed the basic of controlling page break in print media for your web content, and we hope that this encourages you to consider print styles in your website so your content will look good both on screen and on paper.

For more, you can head over to the following reference.

• CSS Paged Media Module Level 3 — W3C

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Syed Balkhi an entrepreneur and a public speaker. His passion revolves around helping businesses succeed. He is known for his creative marketing skills and web development experience. He is the founder of WPBeginner and List25 sites that have been featured on NYTimes, Mashable, Huffington Post, Business Insider and TechCrunch.

Whether you blog for personal or business reasons, creating quality content can really eat up a lot of your time. This is especially true if you want to make a dent in the online world. Creating awesome content that is informative and worth sharing requires significant time and effort to research and write.

There is a defined process to creating a successful blog even after writing and publishing your articles. You must take time to promote your content and be prompt in responding to comments from your readers. After that, the whole process starts over again and it’s time to write your next post. Sometimes we wish we can just wave a magic wand and new content magically appears, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.

Recommended Reading: 8 Things To Do When Your Writer Quits

Unless you can afford to hire your own writers similar to large publishing companies, you’ll have to do it all yourself. Consistency is key if you want to be successful and earn a living from blogging. Don’t worry though. Here are some time saving tips that can help you write with more efficiency and be more productive.

1. Have A Specific Place To Store Your Ideas

One of the biggest challenges most writers encounter is thinking of ideas and topics to write about. Writer’s block is common to most bloggers. Ideas often come to us at unexpected times and in unusual ways. Ideas can come to us while taking a walk, playing video games or even chatting with friends.

Having a place to store your ideas is important.

Either have a little notebook handy or use a notes app on your smartphone to capture your ideas. Write down any ideas that come to mind. Don’t be concerned about the relevance or quality, just get your raw ideas written down. Later on you can go back and review and edit your ideas to help you finalize your next blog topics.

2. Create A Content Plan

Aside from writing down ideas, take time to create a content plan. Your content plan should be in the form of a calendar. It is where you will track types of post you will create and when you will publish each one. You should also note your promotional strategy in your content plan for each post you publish.

By updating your plan on a regular basis, it will help you be more productive and be more consistent in creating and publishing your content.

3. Create An Outline For Each New Post

Once you have figured out the title and have written the introduction for your article, the next step is to create an outline. This is especially helpful for articles that are in a list format. Creating an outline will help you shape the flow of your content, making writing your post easier to complete.

After creating your outline, tackle the most difficult part of your article first. I find this method works well to keep my writing process on track.

4. Schedule Time To Write

Have you ever sat in front of your computer and just stared at an empty screen? Don’t worry. You are not alone. The best way to tackle this problem is to schedule time for yourself to write. Pick times when you feel most creative and alert.

Choose a time when you’re likely to experience the least distractions. Some people write better in the morning, while others write better at night. Make sure you stick to your schedule and make it a habit.

5. Remove Distractions

When you have set up your writing schedule, the next thing you need to do is eliminate all distractions. Turn off the television, close your email client and log off your social networks. By removing distractions you can better focus and be more in the creative zone.

Writing requires a lot of concentration. You want your words to flow naturally. Don’t let those seemingly little distractions derail you from creating great content.

6. Use A Timer Or Set A Deadline

Another effective trick is to set a deadline for yourself. Let’s say it takes you two hours to write and edit a blog post. Set yourself a deadline and stick to it. The time you allow yourself will depend on the kind of article you’re writing and your overall writing skills. The key here is discipline.

I know some friends who even use a timer. This tool is a great way to get you hustling and more focused on the writing task at hand.

7. After You’re Done Writing, Take Time To Edit

Have you tried writing your article and editing it at the same time? It doesn’t work very well. I know this is hard for some writers to understand, but it is something that is important if you want to create well written content. The main reason for this approach is to give yourself the opportunity to truly focus on just writing and to let your thoughts flow.

Constantly stopping to edit will just distract you and derail your train of thought. Don’t stop to check grammar or spelling until you are done writing your first draft.

8. Fact Check, Create Your Tags and Add Photos

After editing your work for grammatical and spelling errors, the next step is to do your fact checking and add meta tags. At this point you can also add images that will complement your article. By doing these activities in batches, you save time and can concentrate on actually writing your post. Establishing a defined, repeatable workflow is key for maximum productivity.

9. Back Up Your Site

Imagine you wake up one morning and your blog is gone. All your work has disappeared. One key step that most bloggers tend to miss is backing up their website or blog. Do not wait for your site to get hacked or infected with malware before implementing a back-up strategy.

If you are unsure of how to go about backing up your blog, hire a professional to do it for you. Being prepared will save you significant money, time and aggravation in the event that something bad happens.

Recommended Reading: How to Create a Complete WordPress Backup for Free with BackWPup

10. Use Analytics To Avoid Guess Work

Aside from using the comments and social-sharing statistics to help judge how well your content is resonating, you may want to look at implementing more formal analytics. If you struggle with analysis (finding which topics your readers like and share the most), the best thing to do is implement Google Analytics on your site to eliminate the guess work.

Read Also: 20 Must-Know Tips & Tricks To Master Google Analytics Data

Google Analytics will give you a good idea of the kind of articles that resonate most with your audience. Your site’s analytics will show you who visits and on which pages they spend the most time.

Knowing how your readers interact with your content will help you better gauge your audience’s behavior and preferences. If you are new to blogging, it is a must to set up your Google Analytics at the start and not lose out on valuable analytical information.

Final Thoughts

As a blogger there are so many things you can do to shave time off your blogging workflow and to-do list. By saving time on your writing process, you can allot more time promoting your articles, replying to comments and building relationships with other bloggers.

What time saving activities have you implemented? How much time have you saved? Share your tips with us here. We would love to hear from you.