The initial struggles with errors
At the beginning of my coding journey, errors felt like failure.
Every time something broke, it felt like I had done something wrong.
And in a way, I had.
But I misunderstood what that “wrong” meant.
The Fear of Seeing Red
There is something about error messages that makes you uncomfortable.
- Red text
- Long lines of unfamiliar words
- Strange symbols and file paths
It doesn’t look friendly. Because Python must complain if the logic does not add up. Usually with syntax that are not immediatly recognizable.
It doesn’t feel helpful.
It feels like rejection.
My First Reaction to Errors
When I first encountered errors, my instinct was simple:
“Something is wrong—fix it quickly.”
So I would:
- Change things randomly. Sometimes, not knowing exactly what to do-a trial and error
- Remove lines and expecting to get the red out
- Try again, and again
- Hope it works
Sometimes it did.
But I wasn’t learning. Imagined how a non swimmer tries to stay afloat in water? That is literally what I am doing.
I was escaping. Trying to stay afloat but not knowing what exactly to do
What I Didn’t Understand
I thought errors were obstacles.
But they were actually:
messages
Not insults.
Not failures- A curve that leads to clarity. Understanding. Revelations
Not punishments. A process that builds understanding
Messages.
The Shift That Changed Everything
At some point, I paused and asked:
“What is this error actually trying to tell me?”
And for the first time, I didn’t rush to fix it.
I tried to read it.
Not perfectly.
Not completely.
Just… slowly.
Breaking Down the Error
I started noticing things:
- The file name
- The line number
- The type of error
Each part was pointing somewhere.
Each part was giving a clue of what you missed.
Errors Became a Guide
Instead of seeing errors as something to avoid…
I began to see them as:
a guide to understanding
They showed me:
- where I went wrong
- what I misunderstood
- what I needed to learn next
From Fear to Curiosity
That was the real transformation.
Before:
I feared errors
Now:
I investigate them
A New Way of Learning
Errors forced me to slow down.
To think.
To connect logic.
They made learning active—not passive.
What I Learned From This Stage
- Errors are not the problem—misunderstanding them is
- Every error contains information
- Debugging is a skill, not luck
- Progress comes from fixing, not avoiding
Where This Leads Next
Understanding errors is one thing.
Knowing how to approach them consistently is another.
Because the next step is not just seeing errors…
It’s developing a method to solve them.
Tech Journey — Season 1, Episode 11
Stage: Logic, Errors & the Terminal
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