Getting started gives you the framework to think about how to get started

What should I do?

I don’t know, what do you like?

I don’t know, after all, I’ve never done anything.

These two people don’t even have the same vocabulary to have a conversation. There’s no basis for comparison at all. In my field, people often ask me which path to follow, and I assume they want a min/max path for effort/money. The thing is, the effort is less when you like something, and the money is greater when you’re good at something. I can’t guide you down any path if I don’t know where you want to go.

Aspiring programmers ask me if they “should go for frontend or backend,” and that’s like asking if you should play soccer or handball. I don’t know, you’re the one who has to figure that out. If you can’t figure it out, just take any step in any direction, then we’ll have a common vocabulary so I can at least understand how your experience is going.

Imagine someone who has never touched a smartphone in their life asking you which smartphone they should buy. Naturally, you ask, “What are you going to use the smartphone for?” and the person answers, “To use the apps, duh.” Fantastic, we can’t recommend anything with good cost-benefit to this person, because we don’t even know what they need or what they like.

If the person starts with ANY smartphone, then we’ll have a vocabulary to talk. “I got this cheap one from China, it’s kind of cool, but it's slow and clunky.” Okay, the person needs more CPU. “Are you willing to buy a phone that’s $200 more expensive to have less lag?”

Now we can have a conversation. “Are the photos good enough or do you need a better camera?” “Are you getting along with the phone’s usability?” “Is the battery lasting the whole day for you?”

Do you see how much easier it is when the person knows how to talk about the subject? Do you see that the person will understand the value of a phone more quickly and be able to judge if the increase in speed justifies spending another $200?

The same thing happens in programming. If you don’t program, I can’t even talk to you because we don’t share the same vocabulary. If you do literally anything, we can start talking. “I found C very hard and a lot of work to get anything done. I’m more of a visual person.” Okay, maybe we’ll steer you more toward JS on the frontend. “I liked manipulating tables with pandas in Python, I felt like I could generate a lot of value with little code.” Cool, maybe you’ll enjoy data analysis. By sharing the same vocabulary, I can understand what you like and don’t like, help you with your challenges, guide you to solutions for your problems, clarify your doubts, and we can actually have a conversation that has some value.

As long as we don’t share a vocabulary, a common experience, the only recommendation I can give is: “Try out three random things and come back and tell me which one you liked best and why.”