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 into the language I’ve had so far.
In February I went to my first meeting of the Boston Python Meetup group. I went to the Project Night and received quite the warm welcome, and two weeks later went to the Presentation Night. I also went to the Project Night for March, but March’s Presentation Night was reserved solely for true beginners to help them get Python installed and configured, so I reluctantly skipped that meeting.
The only experience with Django I’d had prior to late January was the Learning Log project I built last summer from No Starch Press’ Python Crash Course book. I took back to back Django courses on Udemy: Nick Walter’s Django 2.1 & Python | The Ultimate Web Development Course and Brad Traversy’s Python Django Dev to Deployment. After having built several Django apps of various complexity, I can say I definitely enjoy building apps in Django. I’m still getting the hang of deployment. I’m reminded of the Indiana Jones quote: “I didn’t know you could fly!” “Fly, yes. Land, no!”
In March I took a staycation because the American employees at my job only very recently learned that any carried over vacation days had to be taken before the end of March, so I used the opportunity to log some serious study time. Now I have a reputation as a complete madman. My coworkers, friends, and family have all reacted pretty much the same, wondering how I could force myself to spend 40 hours coding during my “break” from work. The vacation gave me the chance to finish one of my courses and to work on my personal portfolio site, one of my long-term goals. I’d created a prototype blog in late December/early January, but I’m much happier with this iteration.
A huge accomplishment that I’m proud of is the ten-week streak I hit from January through March of programming/studying a minimum of fifteen hours each week outside of work. I had to break this streak because of my work trip to Berlin, but now I’m back to my usual routine. I have to clarify that this is study time outside of work vs. studying at work because as part of our evaluation, we have to specify four quarterly goals to meet as part of our bonus structure. My supervisor determined one of my goals would be to overhaul our virtual machine infrastructure along with one of my teammates, so I had to set the other three goals. I’ve earned quite the reputation as a compulsive course buyer on Udemy.com, and I pitched the idea to my supervisor that the 77-hour Java course could qualify as my goals for the three quarters: two quarters to finish the course and one quarter to sit for the Oracle Java exam the course claims to prepare students for passing. I’m excited to be working with a more traditional programming language after only learning web-based programming for so long. I’ve finished 11% of the course so far and am on track for finishing on time.
I returned yesterday from my week in Berlin, and today I’m excited to be back in action after a week and a half break. I started Jose Portilla’s Udemy course on Python for Data Structures, Algorithms, and Interviews. This is an area I’m definitely eager to learn more about. Two years ago I would have asked “What’s a Computer Science,” and a year ago I still didn’t know what I didn’t know. Over the last year or so I’ve started piecing together rudimentary concepts of different data structures and algorithms, and in late December/early January I took a JavaScript course on Udemy that walked us through how to code each structure from scratch. I bought this Python Data Structures course a few months ago but wanted to gain a little more fluency in Python before taking it. Now the time has come, and I’m looking forward to building a deeper understanding of this area of programming that would have absolutely terrified me two years ago. That’s where I’ll pick up next post.
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
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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