Fine or course grind, sir?
/How to learn faster and tackle the hard stuff; now that is the question. I started not deciding on what to focus on first, basic web, app, or gaming project. This had led me to more indecision when it came down to picking a language out of the many available and sniffing out a good starting zone. Going back to the basics I took on html 5 and css. Many corollaries are being made between these in the starter zone and my current view of a path to success. Now that I had picked a course path, it was up to me to get into the fine grinding and work through the languages until they stuck. The grind
Use your own editor. Syntax is catching on more and more without as much reference. Looking back I never had such a hard time with commas and semi colons, ask my english teachers, well that could not be any further from the truth here in coding land. I swear, missing a semi colon makes me feel so silly when I spent 10 minutes to find it per problem. That time has dropped significantly but can be a real headache at 1 am after starring at the editor all day. Now using your own editor is so much better and can show your errors more easily and auto fill spots that keep you honest with the syntax.
Picking a variety of skills to focus on is not recommended as you may get confused and start mixing up the terms and operators with each other. A good thing about the languages that I looked into, only take a few days to get the basics down and then you can move on to more advanced skills. This keeps the leveling at the early stage fluid and quick keeping the interest amounts elevated.
So html and css intro work done as well as some javascript, just to see what it was all about, and on to Ruby on rails. Just started the Ruby module today and made it through the first 30% of the codecademy quest chain. This is a fun one as it showcases the ability to do some fun things while sorting through data. This will be my primary area off focus for the next few days as to get my skills up rapidly so I can start building my new coder portfolio and smattering of test apps.
Another great help, besides caffeine, is finding that great music stream for the background of this quest. I generally listen to trance or upbeat hip hop for all task based work to be done. Im finding it great to block out coffee shop chatter and background noise while not getting in the way of my internal dialogue with lyrics that I catch myself singing along with. I will be adding a soundcloud playlist for any interested. Some real gems that never show up on pandora or last.fm that I have come across will be on there that really gave me that extra bit of energy to code another hour.
The grind continues, using new found skills I will do some work on this site as a test project. Along with that I will be posting a weekly wrap up with links to basic projects to get anyone else started. These will go beyond the coding sites and more into the interesting projects like tic tac toe and a tetris like game made in ruby.
Up next
- Beginners projects list and links
- Whats left until level 10
- What are these “levels” I’m gaining anyway?