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Our Story So Far

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Original date: April 17, 2019 Let’s start from the beginning…at least the beginning of 2019. That’s certainly not the beginning of my journey into software development, but I’ll save my origin story for its own post for a later time. Yes, we’ll start in January of 2019 and recap the courses and activities that have kept me busy up until now, so that I can quickly start making posts about my current projects and courses. I spent about three weeks in January taking Colt Steele’s Udemy course “The Modern Python 3 Bootcamp.” I’d taken Colt’s excellent “Web Developer Boot Camp” course two years ago and was impressed how well he explained the topics and provided useful hands-on projects to help incorporate the lecture material. In this new Python course, Colt made great use of Udemy’s support for browser-based code exercises they introduced in 2018. This course refreshed, reinforced, and built upon the foundation of Python I learned in the summer of 2018 and has been the deepest dive in
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Against the Clock: Succinct, Clever, and Elegant vs. Longer, Manual, and Simpler

Original date:  Nov 16, 2017 Many times there are multiple approaches for solving a particular coding challenge. When time is limited, how do you know which approach you should take? The more elegant solution that might require a little more mastery and familiarity of the problem but result in a more impressive and clever-looking answer? The more manual, labor intensive process that allows you to attack the problem one layer at a time but omits demonstrating your prowess over specific, tailor-made methods? When the clock is ticking in an interview, it can be hard to decide, especially if you encounter a problem outside of your comfort zone. During timed coding challenges, whether for a job interview, a Launch School assessment, or any situation in which you code for an audience, our LS instructors have reminded us frequently that our problem-solving ability will be working at less than peak capacity. Especially in the beginning, coding in front of others adds another dimension
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Studying for First Launch School Assessment

Original date:  Aug 13, 2017 I started the Launch School free prep course almost three months ago and finished it in just over a month. After that I became a paid subscriber and am winding down the first course, 101: Programming Foundations. My motivation for embarking on the Launch School journey was simple: after working on my own 15 to 20 hours a week programming through tutorials, books, and code-along exercises, I knew I’d gained a certain familiarity with many of the tools for web development. However, I felt like I hadn’t scratched the surface with actually learning how to program. I’ve noticed a great deal of improvement in my problem-solving ability with programming, but I also wonder how to further fill the gaps and build my knowledge base. The Launch School curriculum is better than any other programming course or tutorial that I’ve seen — by far. Their approach of ‘fundamentals first’ was exactly what attracted me to the program, and I certainly feel much more confi
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