Please stop changing your mind!

Unity Courses Talk
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#1

With only a few months of OO programming under my belt I’ve accepted I’m going to need to roll with the punches for a good portion of this course, but this lecture broke me enough to post here.

The frantic pace you’re switching between files and trains of thought at as you type, delete, and refactor your code on the fly isn’t helping me to learn and is creating a massive time sink.

I’m second-guessing all the work I’ve done when pausing for the challenges and am amending my code to fall into line with what you’re doing, only to find by the time I’ve caught up you’ve decided it would be better to chop and change your code into something completely different. When I stop and rewind to play catch up, I don’t know if the section I’ve teleported to contains the code that survives to the end of the lecture or not, so I have to sit through the section again to be sure I’ve achieved parity.

Granted, there are usually many ways to achieve something, but please decide on one before recording each video session.

#2

I think you are referring to the section after the challenge, is that right? Rewatching it does seem that I go a bit scatterbrain there. I don’t think I was switching between files though, so maybe you are referring to a different bit.

While it might be a bit hard to follow, the end result of the code is what really matters in the stage of the lecture. The explanation of how I got there is more to give you the flavour and reasoning. Maybe try rewatching it after you have got the code to the final state so you don’t have to worry about keeping up.

If you are struggling to see what the actual changes are, do take a look at the resource link available against every lecture called “This Lecture’s Github Commit”. This will show you a summary of all the code changes.

#3

Thanks Sam, good point about the github commit. I’ll use that in future if I lose track and can’t address compile errors.

Generally enjoying the course. Probably getting frustrated because I’m so eager to get onto the next lesson and I hate getting bogged down.

#4

Glad you’re finding GitHub useful. Sorry that the end of that video was a bit scatty. Looks like I got a little carried away.

#5

Sam, First off i would like to thank you for the work you put into this course its extremely well made, and I’m a very beginner programmer, and I’m kinda just powering my way through and figuring out as much stuff as i can. I’ve actually been able to (as I’ve progressed through this course) start doing and attempting some of the ideas on my own.

But I do have to agree with anoshi in some aspects. You’re obviously quite good at your job, so these things become second nature for you, and I don’t mind you refactoring the code to make it more efficient/ less expensive, but do you think in future courses that when you do this you could go into further detail on why you’re doing it? i think this would really help instill some more knowledge into a new programmer on why they’re important things to do.

Again, fantastic course bro, its been a blast so far.

#6

Thanks for the feedback @zammystuff. I’m always trying to improve so I will definitely keep an eye out for these situations in the future. I just need to remember that if I’m going too fast, I need to slow down. Sometimes it can feel even to myself like I’m racing to finish a lecture.

#7

No worries bro, keep up the good work!

#8

Hi Sam,

I am the same in my job also, because keyboard shortcuts etc. come naturally to me, sometimes when i’m showing colleagues things, they are completely lost due to lots of my actions beings done by the flick of a keystroke ^_^.

I also sometimes find it hard to follow along, I know this is more for intermediate learners so perhaps i’m not quite up to scratch yet, I do find myself having to re-watch sections of a lecture sometimes to figure out what else you did which wasn’t clearly communicated.

However with that said, I am thoroughly enjoying your lectures so far and can tell you have a wealth of knowledge so I cannot wait to learn more from you (I have all the RPG courses lined up so i’m very excited to work through them), so minor feedback for your future lectures (as already pointed out by previous posters) would be please slow down a little bit vocalise more of your thoughts / processes (if you’re looking for inspiration, I find Rick has this down to a tee throughout all of his different lectures).

Please don’t be disheartened, you’re doing an amazing job and as already said, I cannot wait to learn more from you!!! <3