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

blog.jenniferdewalt.com

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

#251

Post by donaq »

You are super awesome. I have been programming for years and I still don't know how to do some of the stuff you've done for your websites. I'm sure I could easily learn how to, but then it's easy for me because I have the advantage of years of experience. To be able to get to where you are within 3 months is astounding to me and that tells me something about the validity of your approach, so I'm gonna shamelessly rip you off the next time I need to learn a new skill.

Somebody hire this person!

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

#252

Post by rickhanlonii »

amerika_blog wrote: post #246
edw519 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great reason to do what is often frowned upon by us high achieving Hacker Newsers: get a job. I have worked on so many projects in so many jobs that I lost track long ago. But it's always been the same: Get it done, good enough, on time! At first, I was always frustrated that I wasn't delivering product up to my own standards. But a funny thing happens when you do that hundreds (or thousands) of times: You…

I believe in "just do it" and worry about the details later. However, on the internet, there is a worship of "hard work" that strikes me as emotional more than real. Hard work is 1/2 of the equation. The other part is your wiring: intelligence, skill, etc. Not everyone can do everything. We can dumb down any task to the point where anyone can do it... but at that point, it's a bubble waiting to pop.

Hard work is half of what equation?

Is the equation 'success in life as measured against everyone else,' or is the equation 'success in life as measure against yourself'? If the question is the latter--which is the only question a person should care about--then hard work is very close to 100%. This isn't an emotional claim, it's a rational and evidence based claim.

The reason that there is a rightful reverence to hard work is because working hard is the variable we can change. Not only that, it's guaranteed to produce results. If you intentionally build 180 web sites in 180 days, you will get better. You may not get better than someone more intelligent, but you can't be that person, you can only be who you are.

Not everyone can be everything, but anyone who does nothing will be nothing.

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

#253

Post by wslh »

rickhanlonii wrote: post #252
amerika_blog wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe in "just do it" and worry about the details later. However, on the internet, there is a worship of "hard work" that strikes me as emotional more than real. Hard work is 1/2 of the equation. The other part is your wiring: intelligence, skill, etc. Not everyone can do everything. We can dumb down any task to the point where anyone can do it... but at that point, it's a bubble waiting to pop.

Hard work is half of what equation? Is the equation 'success in life as measured against everyone else,' or is the equation 'success in life as measure against yourself'? If the question is the latter--which is the only question a person should care about--then hard work is very close to 100%. This isn't an emotional claim, it's a rational and evidence based claim. The reason that there is a rightful reverence to har…

Also context is important: the hard work of the poor guy in Mozambique can make an infinitesimal part of his alter ego in US.

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

#254

Post by goblin89 »

Dn_Ab wrote: post #248
petea wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's see her repository ( https://github.com/jendewalt/jennifer_dewalt ). This girl not only became a competent front end developer in 100 days, but looking at the Gemfile, she knows how to use capistrano, redis, capistrano, paperclip, omniauth and devise? She knows the best practices for Rails perfectly. She not only grasped to use MVC perfectly, but also organized asset codes perfectly in like 50 days. I forgot…

Not gullible, just giving her the benefit of the doubt. It could turn out that she had some guidance, or has worked with people (though not as a programmer) and is smart + good enough memory to osmos some good practices, or took some class a long time ago that stuck better than she thought. Perhaps she had a power up period of non committed grazing and chose day 1 as the for real now point. Or some combination of abo…

> It could turn out that she had some guidance

Indeed. Not mentioning anyone doesn't mean she's working alone.

It's possible that she uses some help. It's also possible that she works on her own. It's also possible that she's a fictional character (admittedly there isn't enough data proving otherwise).

The idea itself is interesting regardless of the above. First thing that occurred to me is why don't I go for it myself. I'm still pondering that.

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

#255

Post by tcdowney »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #211
[deleted] wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

A bit of feedback on your site: 1. Don't call your blog "Poop". You're better than that. I know it's an attempt at being clever/sardonic/wry/whatever, but keep in mind tone and nuance don't convey well on the internet. At best it's self-depreciating but not in a good way. 2. On your About page, that you link prominently on your home page, don't then tell people it's none of their business and call them "rude". You in…

Heh the whole "Here's a tasty sandwich" bit reminds me of The Little Schemer and not in a good way.

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

#256

Post by jgs1 »

petea wrote: post #210
freyr wrote: post #143

So many hurt egos in this thread. If you think what she's done is impossible, have you ever devoted 70/hrs a week to a personal endeavor for 6 straight months? Would you have the willpower and perseverance to stay committed and focused? Also, these are cool sites, infused with a lot of creativity and a refined aesthetic sense, but it's not as if she's claimed to have written an OS or compiler in 115 days. Much of the…

So let's see her repository ( https://github.com/jendewalt/jennifer_dewalt ). This girl not only became a competent front end developer in 100 days, but looking at the Gemfile, she knows how to use capistrano, redis, capistrano, paperclip, omniauth and devise? She knows the best practices for Rails perfectly. She not only grasped to use MVC perfectly, but also organized asset codes perfectly in like 50 days. I forgot…

I'll admit it, I'm skeptical. I'm also a bit jealous that I can't seem to find 10 spare minutes a day for learning.

Some quick internet sleuthing led me to https://angel.co/grapefeed which appears to show that she's the co-founder of a social-sharing website that just happens to be written in Rails.

If that's the case, then she likely has access to the other co-founder/Rails developer. Not to take anything away from her work, but it doesn't seem quite the same to me as the "One day I woke up and decided to learn web development on my own" tone that I took away from the blog post.

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

#257

Post by canes123456 »

wslh wrote: post #253
rickhanlonii wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard work is half of what equation? Is the equation 'success in life as measured against everyone else,' or is the equation 'success in life as measure against yourself'? If the question is the latter--which is the only question a person should care about--then hard work is very close to 100%. This isn't an emotional claim, it's a rational and evidence based claim. The reason that there is a rightful reverence to har…

Also context is important: the hard work of the poor guy in Mozambique can make an infinitesimal part of his alter ego in US.

But it could mean the difference between life and death.

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

#258

Post by kenster07 »

I have mixed emotions, not about the author, but the implications of this thread. It is great that she shows such dedication to the craft. But has dedication to a craft really become so rare that it is worthy of 900 plus points on hacker news? I know countless software engineers who work their tails off every waking hour, myself included. Do we all deserve hacker news posts? Or should we elevate our expectations?

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

#259

Post by unimpressive »

bsklaroff wrote: post #221
eat wrote: post #152

These comments are infuriating, but not unexpected. So many people who have likely wasted their last 115 days attempting to find every fault with someone who clearly hasn't. OP: Excellent work, and keep it up. I hope you take the criticisms and disbelief for what they truly are: incontrovertible evidence that you're doing something very right.

If I were Jennifer I'd be flattered by the comments. It must feel great to have produced so much quality work that HN naysayers tell you what you did is impossible after you've already done it.

This, when I used to make Halo maps I would often be accused of modding the game to make them. I always took this as a compliment.

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

#260

Post by bananamansion »

robbles wrote: post #89
keiferski wrote: post #4

Wow, this is really inspiring. I see that she's hosting them all on her personal domain, but I have a question, if anyone has an answer. What's the easiest/most cost-effective way to host a large number of sites on different domains? Learn how to use a VPS? Static pages with NearlyFreeSpeech? I've got a zillion ideas (and after seeing this, will be building them soon) but they need to be on separate domains. Paying $…

If you're just building static website (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), I highly recommend just using S3: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/website-hosti... Quick guide: - Create a bucket for each website, named after the domain (e.g. "myproject.mysite.com") - Turn on static website hosting for the bucket (through the AWS Console) - Go to your DNS provider and create a "CNAME" record pointing "myproject.mysite.com…

s3? ... but couldn''t you just host a static site on github for free? whats the difference between the two?
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