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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

#291

Post by ryan-allen »

whbk wrote: post #289

From her Facebook, September 2009: "If you don't know already, I've created an iPhone app! I've been working really hard on this and have had lots of fun taking pictures of myself and my friends. Oh, what it does is gives everyone in the picture a HOT or COLD rating. The app is called ruHOT and is available for download for the iPhone and Android phones. Check it out!" So yeah, highly doubt this is truly her first ro…

Interesting sleuthing. Maybe it's just exceptionally well targeted self-advertising. I know I'll get creamed by playing the gender card, but if this were a guy, would we be so coy to call them out on the fact that 'this ain't your first time'.

I think if anything this kind of misinformation regarding 'the possible output for a beginner' is actually discouraging to beginning developers. I do think this experiment it self-serving.

I have been doing web for around 10 years and it would be no cakewalk (albeit not impossible, if I had the time) to come up with a new novel idea every day for 180 days, and certainly as a beginner this kind of output is the most improbable thing I have ever seen (I have taught a few smart people how to get started and it takes a long time).

So, do we play along and misinform all the other true beginners or do we call out this Red Herring?

If we want more women to be welcome in tech they have to be held to the same kind of standards (honesty and ability). We can't let one individual get away with this kind of dishonesty because of gender.

And if you don't think this kind of manipulation exists, you should go read Reddit sometime (it's full of stuff like this, you can turn a picture of a random puppy into massive attention by saying 'look at who I adopted from an abusive home! I will love him for ever!').

Think about it people!

EDIT: The projects Jen has done are cool and interesting, no doubt. And the 'just f'ing do it' idea is even better. But can't possibly be programming beginner.

EDIT 2: I probably shouldn't be such a bastard, but anyway. Good job. Just be honest where you are coming from and you'll get deeper respect, I think is my point.

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

#293

Post by maaaats »

einarvollset wrote: post #284
zange wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you still based in Santa Cruz? I'm also starting up programming slightly later on while going to a community college (possibly the same one that you went to??), as I first started tinkering with some PHP around a year ago (my age now is 22), then tried a bit of RoR but they ended up being false starts. I've in the last few months started back up with Python (primarily Flask) and JavaScript (mainly AngularJS), and…

Not OP, but in SC - email: einar@lcrnd.com

But, but, your name sound so Norwegian..??

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

#294

Post by maaaats »

cgcardona wrote: post #49

Really great idea Jennifer! This is the kind of initiative and creativity that will surely land you multiple job opportunities. It reminds me of the steps which I took to transition into working on software professionally full time. I came to programming relatively late in life when I was 26 and found out that my wife was expecting a baby. The sudden change facing my wife and I made me take a hard look at my skill se…

I agree with the sentiment: Create a lot of stuff and code with passion and eventually one will become good at it.

But at the same time I have to say this works best for web development and not big software projects. Having programmed like you for some years I took a MSc. in Computer Science, and realized there were big gaps in my knowledge. I felt I could handle writing every program, but in retrospect there was just so much I didn't know. And this will not be learned just by coding a lot but will help with the coding.

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

#295

Post by riquito »

eieio wrote: post #232
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…

As far as I can tell this is an account that was created entirely to post negative responses in this thread. How sad. (it was created 1 hour ago and the only comments from the account are negative posts about the article: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=petea ) To me it just confirms what the GP said: plenty of bruised egos in this thread.

Attacking the person instead of his opinion is worse.

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

#296

Post by Nodex »

You're trying to tell us that you've learned from scratch having never written code before in your life? And in 180 days using tricks like minifying/concatting all assets in your js, adding csrf tokens and many other tricks that a lot of very seasoned web developers don't often use?

Pull the other one....

Nice way to get on HN and to the top though - I take my hat off to you.

Also. 180 single pages is not 180 websites

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

#299

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#300

Post by liquidcool »

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…

Two of the best screenwriting schools are USC and UCLA. The key difference between the two MFA programs (at least a few years ago) was that UCLA required you to write 4 screenplays and USC 1. The logic behind UCLA's requirement was that finishing screenplays is really hard. So many screenwriters have a pile of unfinished screenplays and some never finish any. You really need to get in the habit of finishing them. (Full disclosure: my source was my screenwriting prof who was a UCLA MFA.)

BTW, I read the same ceramics story in "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (which I note came out a year later). Good book.

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