I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115 • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#131

Post by yaddayadda » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:08 PM UTC

thenomad wrote: post #109

yaddayadda wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for almost 6 months While it is far from a definitive diagnosis, it isn't 'normal'. Without a doubt it is ambitious, and her progress thus far impressive! If only we all had 10 hours a day for a full 6 month period to spend pursuing ambitious goals ...

Shrug . Maybe it depends on whom you hang out with. Personally I spend a lot of time with successful entrepreneur and creative types. This sort of focus and commitment, whilst it's definitely laudable, isn't abnormal amongst that crowd.

"Maybe it depends on whom you hang out with."

...and your existing bills and how you are able to pay for them.

I've got a 1 hour commute each direction, and an 8 hour a day, soul-sucking, brain-energy-sucking job. (HN is sanity retention medicine for me.) By the time I get home in the evening, fix dinner for the kids and me, eat, catch up with the family, etc. I don't have a lot of time or energy for anything else.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#132

Post by jbp » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:12 PM UTC

This kind of dedication is inspiring.

From http://blog.jenniferdewalt.com/post/51616616313/day-58-explo... :

"Tomorrow I head to Pennsylvania to host a bridal shower and bachelorette weekend for my sister. Between the pre-wedding festivities and visiting with family, I’m going to be pretty limited on time for building websites. But, the show must go on and I am excited to see what kind of goodness I can create under pressure."

Congratulations Jennifer.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#133

Post by Aqueous » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:12 PM UTC

sivers wrote: post #54

There’s this great story from the book “Art and Fear”, that's very appropriate here: === The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bath…

This is the reason why a) I let myself off the hook for work that had to be rushed and isn't quite perfect when it ships, and B) why I'm not so goddamn critical of other people's work.

Most of us are works in progress, doing the best we can, iterating and making mistakes all the way through, but gradually and incrementally improving. This need to be perfect all the time is a neurosis that our society needs to lose because it results in us being perfect never.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#134

Post by javadi82 » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:13 PM UTC

Thanks so much for posting this. This is the most inspiring "show HN" I've seen here.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#135

Post by wcy » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:15 PM UTC

My plan is to learn how to code by reading the code for 180 of Jennifer Dewalt's websites in 180 days.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#136

Post by freyr » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:18 PM UTC

zinssmeister wrote: post #61

This is pretty cool, but I think spending a bit more time with a bigger project instead of doing 180 small ones would be more beneficial. But maybe her goal is to jump into bigger/long term stuff after the 180 days. Either way, congrats for getting out there and building stuff!

Keep in mind, she's starting from scratch, and her goal is to learn fundamentals of programming, not project management. Managing an large, interconnected project is a formidable task in itself.

She's made a pretty strong case for starting small, managing scope, and keeping realistic expectations.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#137

Post by ksrm » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:25 PM UTC

citricsquid wrote: post #117

it_learnses wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! that's happened with me so many times. I'll start on a project and I'll always theorize all the best features, and then best technologies to use and I end up switching so many technologies and then going on a tangential curve to learn them, and then I eventually quit the project :(

I used to have this problem (and still do to some extent) but it's not impossible to improve. Pick an idea and commit to completing it in the way that you envisage it now, even if midway through you discover a new technology or better way to do it, stick to what you originally planned. There is always a better way to do something and if you allow yourself to be distracted by a "better" way of doing something midway t…

aka: you can't refactor code you haven't written yet.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#138

Post by samstave » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:25 PM UTC

sivers wrote: post #54

There’s this great story from the book “Art and Fear”, that's very appropriate here: === The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bath…

One of my first jobs out of highschool was as a cad drafter for an architecture firm. As the low kid on the totem-pole, I was given the tasks that were not liked by the architects: drawing detail sheets and reproducing blueprints. -- both tasks were highly repetative.

I took both as opportunities to find a meditative cadence to the work. I actually really enjoyed the rhythm of taking plots of large 30x42 inch drawings, marrying them with a blueprint sheet and sending it through the machine. The room was rather small - so you had to pickup a sheet, flip it over, rotate it, stack them, rotate the pair and feed it to the machine. It became a beautiful meditation in movement and was really enjoyable.

With details - I had to draw so many and build so many of the same sheets - I became exceedingly proficient and soon was an exceptionally fast cad drafter...

There is a lot one can learn through mass repetition especially if you do so with the right frame of mind - and not lament the task.

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#139

Post by wcy » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:28 PM UTC

zerr wrote: post #113

cocoflunchy wrote: post #26

This one is awesome: http://jenniferdewalt.com/song_machine/page

Interesting how that is implemented. Didn't quite get from viewing page source. I mean, where is js?

Her site is on github. Most of the song machine source appears to be at

https://github.com/jendewalt/jennifer_dewalt/blob/master/app...

Re: I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115

#140

Post by stevewilhelm » Wed, Jul 24, 2013, 7:32 PM UTC

In the next couple of weeks you might want to look at secure authentication and authorized resource access, scaling, sessions, cross-platform issues, internationalization, adaptive design, etc.

Also might want to revisit some of your existing websites to get some exposure to refactoring, bug fixing, prioritizing feature requests, test based development, performance profiling, etc.