# How hard would it be for a smart person with no programming background to learn to be a defi developer? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Chat\ **Created:** [15 September 2020 23:49 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678 "2020-09-15T23:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dirtycasual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@dirtycasual](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/dirtycasual)\ **Post date:** [15 September 2020 23:49 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/1 "2020-09-15T23:49:41Z")
Question in title. What’s a good way to go about this? What languages would be most important to learn? Probably won’t happen… Just curious and excited about what’s going on in this area. ---
**Author:** ![nomad](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/gov.yearn.fi/nomad/32/2573_2.png) [@nomad](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/nomad)\ **Post date:** [16 September 2020 00:19 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/2 "2020-09-16T00:19:57Z")
Learning to code is just like learning anything else. Python and Solidity could get you pretty far. I recommend starting with Python for your programming basics, then moving on to Solidity and Ethereum since they’re more difficult to wrap your head around at a technical level. ---
**Author:** ![thegismar](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/gov.yearn.fi/thegismar/32/664_2.png) [@thegismar](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/thegismar)\ **Post date:** [16 September 2020 03:17 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/3 "2020-09-16T03:17:41Z")
python is definitely a good language to have in your arsenal. it’s popular (which is _huge_ because it means that many people are creating libraries, etc… that basically let you focus on your problem while taking away the underlying layers), it can do pretty much everything, is in demand in the job market, and once you learn the ins and outs it has some neat ways of syntax… for defi exclusively though i feel i would be better equipped with some flavor of javascript, since it’s so front-end heavy… but i know some guys that get around that using python. anyways start start i’d always recommend python. it’s just a great language. ---
**Author:** ![alexander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@alexander](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/alexander)\ **Post date:** [16 September 2020 17:22 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/4 "2020-09-16T17:22:38Z")
I was in your spot, questioning the same thing. That was about two years ago, and now I am developing in DeFi! Here’s your first task: Make an ERC-20 token and deploy it to a testnet. That’s the first thing I did (setting everything up to do that is the hard part). ---
**Author:** ![Yazen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Yazen](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/Yazen)\ **Post date:** [16 September 2020 19:14 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/5 "2020-09-16T19:14:19Z")
Programming is one issue, understanding what you want to achieve is a different beast. Remember, you can always fork a coin but look at the price difference between BTC and Bitcoin Cash. How many yfi are there- 20? Too many scams from forks. That said, learning to code is not what is hard, it is understanding the logic and what you are trying to achieve. I agree, practice on Eth, although not much of a fan but then you have those billionaires at EOS. Why don’t more developers use ETC? ---
**Author:** ![Crypto.Geex](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/gov.yearn.fi/crypto.geex/32/3433_2.png) [@Crypto.Geex](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/Crypto.Geex)\ **Post date:** [16 September 2020 21:13 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/6 "2020-09-16T21:13:38Z")
I feel it’s going to certainly be a tough challenge just with my basic knowledge of DeFi. ---
**Author:** ![Nub](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ccd318/32.png) [@Nub](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/Nub)\ **Post date:** [17 September 2020 21:10 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/how-hard-would-it-be-for-a-smart-person-with-no-programming-background-to-learn-to-be-a-defi-developer/5678/7 "2020-09-17T21:10:00Z")
This is essentially spam on our governance platform.