My nephew asked me why my code has weird names like 'total2' and it got me thinking about how I learned

Susan Ramirez · 2026-09-11T10:40:03.226545+00:00

My nephew is 13 and just started a Python class at his school in Boise, and he looked at some old practice code on my laptop last weekend. He asked why I had variables named 'total2' and 'dataFINAL' and 'whatever1', and I honestly didn't have a real answer. What I learned in my first few months was just to keep pushing forward and never go back to fix anything, so my early files are a mess of leftover junk. I told him the boring truth: I was scared to rename stuff in case I broke it, and that fear probably cost me weeks of confusion. Does anyone else have a file from their beginner days that they're too scared to even open now?

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My nephew asked me why my code has weird names like 'total2' and it got me thinking about how I learned | Coding For Beginners - Free To Speak