Context vs Content in Learning Coding

Whenever we want to learn coding, or learn a new programming language, it’s important to understand the concept of “Context & Content” first before we dive into this brave new world.

According to this medium post by Erin Ashley Simon: https://medium.com/@erinasimon1/content-vs-context-whats-more-important-fa4f85a23e23

Content is the material/matter/medium contained within the work that’s available for audience. Context is the positioning of the content, story-line or purpose that provides value to the audience. Content isn’t king without context

In another word, content is useless without context.

So – what does this had to do with learning coding, or learning a new programming language?

Let’s say you want to master “React”, you’ll first need to learn the concept of ReactDOM, JSX, React props & state, functional components, React hooks, etc.

These concepts are all content (obviously).

Using these concepts to create a web application would be the context.

As mentioned in Erin’s post – “content isn’t king without context”

This means that learning all the concepts in React is useless if you don’t have a context (a purpose).

It’s always good to learn new skills.

But – learning alone won’t do much if you don’t implement what you learn.

That’s why you need a context (purpose) to the content (new knowledge) in order to get the most out of what you’ve learned.

Otherwise, it’ll be just another thing you go through that would end up collecting dusk in your brain.

And if you don’t practice your new skills regularly, you’ll forgot everything you learned very quickly.

So – if you want to learn something new, whether it’s coding, or a new language, make sure you’ve a clear purpose (the WHY) first before you dive into it.