Finish line on the horizon

It's coming up on 7 months since my first post, which means its been almost 7 months since I started learning to code. I can feel the progress. My brain functions differently now. I can almost feel it processing things and I am more aware of every step I take.

While I didn't necessarily meet my goal of blogging consistently, I have kept up with the more important aspect of the goals I initially outlined by burning the midnight oil on the computer regularly.

Many adjustments have been made in order to keep up a fast pace. Recently I began training myself to function on 6 hours of sleep nightly. I figured that I could squeeze in at least 2 extra hours on the computer nightly by sleeping less. It's working so far.

This week Salem and I finished up the second set of problems for CS50. Man, I have a lot of respect for anyone that can succeed at Harvard. This is an entry level course and the second week's problem sets are already very intense. Luckily I have a bit of background knowledge, so the material isn't completely foreign to me. It is difficult though, and having someone to collaborate with helps tremendously.

In addition to CS50, I am finishing up a tutorial on Rails that has me building a Twitter-clone. It's my first Rails project from scratch, and the building blocks for the Craigslist-style website I will be making for a friend.

Having several projects underway at all times gives me plenty of things to do on any given night, as well as keep things interesting. Sometimes that's all it takes when I'm having one of those days and just want to lay around and watch TV.

This is an opportunity to drastically change my life for the better, and all I have to do is keep striving for the finish line... One late night at a time.

So close, yet so far away.

Any time you take on a new hobby or start to learn a new subject, there comes a point where the shininess wears off, the allure starts to fade, and it becomes work.

That's how programming has been for me, honestly. At first everything was awesome. Each and every little "intro" tutorial would yield a small but huge success, and the vast amount of knowledge available was awe-inspiring. I wouldn't hesitate to show off my simple programs (Hello World, anyone?!?!) and revel in my awesomeness.

But after a few months of continuous study, fun time is over, and the real work begins. You get to the intermediate tutorials (good ones are relatively more difficult to find, I might add) and now you are looking at weeks of work. No more freshly finished programs every hour or so, we are talking days and weeks! This is where I start to lose interest. The instant gratification is waning, the results appear to be slowing; the fun is gone. So I stop. I find something new, or just do nothing new for a while. 

If you know what I am talking about, then you know how it feels looking back on all the times this has happened, and seeing a bunch of unfinished dreams and ideas that were never realized. I started to believe that this was just the way things were, and the way they were gonna be for me. 

All it takes is grit. 

See, I have been learning how to code for almost 6 months now. I am well into the "work" stage, and I haven't given up. It's hard! Every day I make what feels like inches of progress. That tutorial I am working on: 8 days in, averaging 5 hours a day of work. Not even half-way finished. But I know that the end product is going to be exponentially more gratifying than those initial programs. 

What's more, just the fact that I can say that I am still at it feels amazing. Knowing that I am pushing myself further than I can ever remember in the past, and that there is something waiting for me on the other side of all of this: a career.

This is about more than learning a skill to better myself, this is about bettering myself by doing things differently than I always have. 

Back to work!

Still Going Strong

I haven't posted in a while, which would usually mean that I have completely given up on whatever I was writing about. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Ever since I received that dreaded email from App Academy informing me that I did not get accepted into their program, I have been hard at work. I will admit that being rejected was a huge blow to the ego, however, I learned a few things about myself since then.

It turns out that I thoroughly enjoy programming. I actually love it. I love it so much that instead of drowning in my sorrows for weeks on end, I immediately sought out another learning tool to help me get to where I want to be. There are so many resources for aspiring developers, and each one has its own set of pros and cons.

For me, App Academy seemed like the best option given that I had little money to spend, and I wanted to be job ready as soon as possible. The thinking was that any sacrifices I would have to make during the bootcamp would be worth it in the end when I got a high paying developer job. This included a few assumptions of course. I would first have to actually finish the bootcamp. Then I would actually need to get a job, and quickly. Looking back on it now, I am relieved that I didn't get in.

So I did some research: first looking at other bootcamps. I checked out some online schools as well as open-source courses. Given my current situation in life, the best option for me ended up being a free, at-your-own-pace, online curriculum. It's call The Odin Project. You can get all the info you need about it at theodinproject.com.

I have been having a blast lately learning HTML and CSS, with Javascript coming up right around the corner. I must say that the tough application process for App Academy jump started my schooling, and I do not regret it one bit. It actually may be one of the best things I could have done early on. I got very deep into Ruby and learned about a lot of tools programmers use which has made life easier.

Still, this is some very challenging stuff, and sometimes it can be frustrating, but when I get the webpage or program to finally do what I want, the payoff is more than worth it. Experience has taught me that so many things in life are like that.

I plan on posting here once a week at the very minimum, so stay tuned! Whatever you are doing in life, do it with passion, or don't do it at all. I love my life,  and I am excited to wake up every day to see what is coming next.

Until next time...

So many variables!

In the short amount of time that I have been at this, I have devised seemingly hundreds of "paths" to take to become a developer. There are so many languages, text editors, frameworks, etc. that it can be overwhelming to think about. So I took some advice, and focused more on the type of programs I'd like to make: the type of work I think I'd like to end up doing. From there, I worked my way back.

I ended up deciding to take on Ruby. Since I am working on a Windows laptop (for now) I went ahead and used RailsInstaller to get everything up and running. It was quick and easy, with no hiccups whatsoever.

*Since I am new to all of this, I believe that doing as much from the command line as possible is best. However, I do not plan on working with Windows for much longer, and rather than spend a few hours trying to learn DOS and Powershell, I will do it the right way when I get that Mac

My immediate goal is to complete the application process for a web development boot camp called App Academy. I only know what I have read about them, so I won't turn this post into an advertisement. This would be the quickest, albeit absolutely toughest route to take to become a paid developer. Wednesday is my personal deadline for being fully prepared and taking the first coding challenge.

If I don't get accepted, it will not deter me one bit. I know deep down that this is what I want to do, and that with enough work I can get really really good at it. And I feel very fortunate to live in a time that all of the information I need is at my fingertips. There are countless stories of people who are self taught that now have rewarding careers as programmers. It's a beautiful thing.

It's getting late, and my brain is fried from 3 hours of studying. I have been working through Chris Pine's Learn to Program. Yes, I would definitely recommend it to a friend!

Until next time...