Having recently become a parent, I’ve been fascinated watching my son navigate the world for the first time. As a programmer who spends most days wrestling with complex systems and stubborn bugs, I’ve started to notice some striking parallels between how babies learn and how we approach programming. It turns out that babies are natural-born programmers, and there are some valuable lessons we can learn from their approach to understanding the world.
No Preconceived Notions
One of the most remarkable things about babies is their complete lack of preconceived ideas about how things should work. They approach every object, every interaction, and every problem with fresh eyes. They don’t assume that because something looks like a phone, it can’t also be a teething toy, or that because something is meant to be stacked, it can’t also be thrown across the room.
As programmers, we often get trapped by our assumptions. We assume that because we’ve solved a similar problem before, we know the best approach. We assume that because a certain technology is popular, it’s the right choice for our use case. We assume that because we’ve been doing something one way for years, it must be correct.
Babies remind us of the power of approaching problems without baggage. When you’re debugging a particularly stubborn issue, try to forget everything you think you know about the system. Look at the code with fresh eyes. What if this function isn’t doing what you think it’s doing? What if this library doesn’t behave the way you expect? Sometimes the solution is hiding behind our assumptions.
Relentless Observation and Absorption
Babies are incredible observers. They watch everything around them with intense focus, absorbing patterns and behaviors that adults take for granted. They notice details that we’ve learned to ignore. They study cause and effect relationships with the dedication of a scientist.
This constant observation is how babies build their mental models of the world. They’re not just passively watching—they’re actively processing, categorizing, and learning from every interaction they witness.
Great programmers share this trait. They read code voraciously, not just their own but code written by others. They study design patterns, architecture decisions, and implementation details. They watch how experienced developers approach problems, paying attention to not just what they do but how they think.
Make time to observe. Read open-source code. Watch conference talks. Study the work of developers you admire. Just like babies, the more you observe, the more patterns you’ll recognize and the better your intuition will become.
Trying Everything with Everything
Perhaps the most endearing and instructive baby behavior is their tendency to try to combine everything with everything else. Babies will attempt to put blocks in their mouth, bang toys together, stack things that aren’t stackable, and generally experiment with every possible interaction between objects.
This behavior drives parents crazy but serves a crucial purpose: it’s how babies learn about the properties of objects and the rules of the physical world. They’re essentially running experiments to understand the API of reality.
We programmers often get too comfortable with familiar patterns and established conventions. We reach for the same tools, use the same approaches, and follow the same mental paths. But some of the most innovative solutions come from trying to combine things that weren’t meant to be combined.
That CSS framework everyone uses for styling? What happens if you combine it with a functional programming approach? That database designed for relational data? What if you use it for document storage? That testing library meant for unit tests? Could it work for integration testing?
Not all experiments will work, but the ones that do often lead to breakthrough solutions. Give yourself permission to try things that might not work. Create small proof-of-concept projects where you combine technologies in unusual ways.
Fearless Failure
Babies fail constantly. They fall down when learning to walk, they drop things when learning to grasp, they make unintelligible sounds when learning to talk. But they never seem discouraged by failure. In fact, they often seem delighted by it, laughing when they fall or making the same “mistake” repeatedly because they find it interesting.
This fearless approach to failure is something many programmers lose as they gain experience. We become afraid of writing bad code, of making mistakes, of looking foolish. This fear can paralyze us, preventing us from trying new approaches or experimenting with unfamiliar technologies.
Babies remind us that failure is not the opposite of success—it’s part of the learning process. Every bug you introduce teaches you something about the system. Every failed experiment gives you data about what doesn’t work. Every mistake is an opportunity to improve your understanding.
Embrace failure as a learning tool. Create environments where you can fail safely—personal projects, sandboxes, development environments where breaking things doesn’t matter. The more comfortable you become with failure, the more willing you’ll be to take the risks that lead to innovation.
Persistence Without Frustration
Watch a baby trying to reach a toy that’s just out of grasp. They’ll try different approaches, different angles, different strategies. They might get momentarily frustrated, but they rarely give up entirely. They approach the problem with a combination of determination and playfulness that’s both inspiring and instructive.
Contrast this with how we often approach difficult programming problems. We get frustrated, we get stuck in loops, we start banging our heads against the wall. We take the problem personally, as if the code is deliberately trying to thwart us.
Babies approach problems with what psychologists call “effortless effort”—they’re working hard but not forcing it. They’re persistent but not rigid. When one approach doesn’t work, they naturally try another.
When you’re stuck on a problem, channel your inner baby. Stay persistent but playful. Try different approaches without getting emotionally attached to any single solution. Take breaks when you need them, but don’t give up entirely. Sometimes the breakthrough comes when you least expect it.
Immediate Feedback Loops
Babies learn through immediate feedback. They drop a toy, and it falls—instant feedback about gravity. They make a sound and someone responds—instant feedback about communication. They touch something hot and it hurts—instant feedback about safety.
This immediate feedback is crucial for learning. It allows babies to quickly adjust their behavior and build accurate mental models. The shorter the feedback loop, the faster the learning.
As programmers, we should strive for similarly short feedback loops. Use tools that give you immediate feedback about your code. Set up your development environment so you can see the results of your changes quickly. Write tests that run fast and give you immediate feedback about whether your code works.
The faster you can iterate, the faster you can learn. The faster you can learn, the better programmer you’ll become.
Babies as Natural Programmers
Babies are natural programmers. They approach problems with curiosity rather than fear, experimentation rather than assumptions, and persistence rather than frustration. They learn through observation, iteration, and play.
As we grow up and gain experience, we often lose some of these natural learning instincts. We become more cautious, more set in our ways, more afraid of making mistakes. But the best programmers I know have managed to retain some of that baby-like approach to problem-solving.
The next time you’re facing a difficult programming challenge, try channeling your inner baby. Approach the problem with fresh eyes, experiment fearlessly, and don’t be afraid to fail. You might be surprised by what you discover.
After all, if babies can figure out how to walk, talk, and navigate the complexities of human interaction starting from zero, surely we can debug that function that’s been giving us trouble all week.