Advice on Learning Grasshopper
The Value of Time, Context, and Intention
When I started my first job at a structural engineering firm, I was hired into a team focused on exploring technology for the AEC (Architectural, Engineering, Construction) industry. On my first day, I was told that I was expected to learn how to use a tool that the team uses to solve problems on projects. My manager grabbed a chair, sat next to me and walked me through the basics of this unfamiliar tool. He gestured and pointed at things for me to take note of. Trying but failing to seem smart, I just nodded along pretending to understand.
Just before he was called into a meeting, he opened YouTube on my computer, searched for "University Grasshopper playlist," and opened the playlist he was looking for. He told me to spend the entire week watching the videos to understand what Grasshopper does. He left, and I begrudgingly clicked on the first video, already looking forward to my lunch break. This was supposed to be my first real job—why was I watching YouTube tutorials on day one?
Throughout the week, I slogged through the monotonous lectures that made it felt like I had never left school. Everyone around me seemed to be doing actual work while I was just watching Youtube. At the end of the week, just as I had enough of watching lectures every day, I finally got my first real-world task: to model a staircase in Grasshopper.
As excited as I was to finally have my first task, I hated it. I struggled so much and had to constantly ask my manager for help. I started to develop this hatred for Grasshopper because I couldn't understand anything. What good were those week of lectures if I couldn't even solve my first task.
But, every time I asked for help, I started to notice that the lessons from the YouTube lectures started to click in my head. Grasshopper slowly started to make sense to me and I was getting obsess with this tool.
It wasn't until two years later that I realized how lucky I was to be given the time and space to learn Grasshopper from the ground up. Sure it was boring, but it was a necessary evil to understand how Grasshopper works. The only thing missing back then was the context—the "why" behind using it. As I watched those lectures, I didn't have any motivation behind learning Grasshopper other than my manager telling me to. It was hard to be excited about using the tool.
Unfortunately, many people learning Grasshopper today have a similar backstory to mine. They either lack the context or the time to learn the tool properly. I was lucky that my manager had the foresight to mentor me in Grasshopper since I was a graduate. Most people trying to learn Grasshopper today already have busy careers that they need to handle.
This means that they don't have the time to discover or learn how Grasshopper can be applied to their work. My experience taught me that learning Grasshopper depends less on the tutorials you watch and more on having both the right context and enough time to apply it properly.
Learning Grasshopper with Intention
If you're considering learning Grasshopper, it's crucial to find an environment that provides both the context and the time to learn the tool effectively. It's not enough to just take online courses—you have to be able to apply what you've learned to your own work.
The key is to approach learning Grasshopper with intention. This means spending the time to first identify problems that you could solve with Grasshopper then trying to solve it. By doing so, you anchor what you learn with the problems you face at work. Because I lacked the context when I was learning Grasshopper, I always find it useful to have the context of your problems drive what you need to learn.
If you are a drafter, learning how to draft with RhinoInside Revit might be the first place you start, not how to generate geometry in Rhino. If you are an engineer, finding out how Grasshopper interacts with your current analysis or design programs is a good place to start. Even something as simple as automating repetitive modeling tasks can provide the perfect context for learning.
In a company, you need the right people who not only understands Grasshopper but also how to use it strategically. These people can identify where computational design creates the most value and how it integrates into projects. It's about understanding how adopting Grasshopper impacts not just the person using it but the entire organization. Which is why learning Grasshopper in the right context is so important.
The Reality of Learning Grasshopper
What many don't realize is that learning Grasshopper isn't just about mastering a tool—it's about developing a new way of thinking. The visual programming environment requires you to break down problems into logical steps, something that traditional processes might not emphasize. This mental shift takes time and patience.
Learning Grasshopper is very similar to learning how to code. The biggest difference is that Grasshopper provides instant feedback and is geometry and data focused. The tool's visual nature can be deceptively simple, leading people to underestimate the learning curve. Much like how we can't expect anyone to be a programmer overnight, we can't expect anyone to be an expert Grasshopper overnight either.
Beyond the Basics
Once you've mastered the fundamentals, Grasshopper becomes more than just a tool. It gives you a new way of viewing problems. You start seeing opportunities for automation and optimization everywhere. You start writing scripts that solve your "small" everyday problems—like bulk editing column tags or section properties. These tasks might take an hour to set up in Grasshopper but save days of manual work in the long run. But this level of mastery only comes when you've had both the time to develop the skills and the context to apply them meaningfully.
The most successful Grasshopper users I've met aren't necessarily those who know every component by heart. They're the ones who understand how the tool fits into their broader professional context and have been given the space to develop that understanding organically.
Moving Forward
If you've just started learning Grasshopper , remember that it's okay to feel overwhelmed and It's okay to hate it at first, just as I did. But if you can find—or create—an environment that gives you both the context and time to learn, you'll discover a tool that can transform your approach to design and problem-solving.
The key is to seek out opportunities where you can learn with purpose. It could be about having conversations with your manager or company about trying to implement more computational design tasks into your current work. Start small—identify a repetitive task that takes up too much time, and explore how Grasshopper might help automate it. This gives you both the context and motivation to learn.
Because in the end, Grasshopper isn't just about creating parametric designs—it's about developing a new way of thinking about and solving problems. I am a strong advocate for anyone to learn how to code or to learn Grasshopper because I think it helps you think more logically. This short article by the Scientific American explains it well.