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

blog.jenniferdewalt.com

341–350 of 370 posts

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

#341
post #60

I have to ask: How on earth do you find the time to do this? As much as I'd love to do this in order to get my hands dirty on web development and out of systems, I can't ever fathom having the free time available every day consecutively. I mean, for someone "learn(ing) to code" on Day 1 and by Day 15 doing "Dropping Boxes", it just seems a little far fetched. Obviously you have had a good portion of coding experience…

[deleted]

Your front page has some overlapping text on my mobile browser. Screencap: http://imgur.com/tqiLdZy.png

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

#342
post #332
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With stories like this, I have found it to be the opposite. People that would usually question this, won't because they are terrified of being called sexist which is (exactly what you have done and) one of those things that hangs around you and can ruin your career very quickly. This style of marketing is becoming very popular. The young, disadvantaged, novice, whatever does something extraordinary through sheer bril…

> we need to question it every time it appears We really don't. You playing armchair internet detective will not stop people from getting more attention than you. What do all of those things hurt? Nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a story on the internet for a few days. It's not being shoved in your face, you're not being made to read about it. You chose to join this thread, like you chose to look…

I completely agree. I've always wondered what the obsession about "outing" liars on the internet is about. If the person can craft an interesting enough story to keep people engaged for a short period of time, who cares if its "true"? This is the internet, the value is derived from what is communicated, not what actually happened on the other side of the terminal. Now when someone is asking for donations or whatnot, skepticism is warranted. But this? Just take it for what it is; enjoy it or move along.

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

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just before I started the project, I looked around the internet for some resources to see what I was getting myself into. There are so many awesome places to get information out there. Stack Overflow, the Wikipedia, demos, tutorials, documentation. I spend about 10 hours a day working on the project and the vast majority of that time is me digging through those amazing resources.

Do you have a list of your favorite resources. Would be great to see that path... Like I built this and used this to learn. Fantastic job btw. Kudos!

I don't have a formal list right now but I do have a folder full of random bookmarks which I'll do something with at some point. I always keep a window open with tabs to Stack Overflow, jQuery docs, Underscore docs, and Ruby on Rails Guides (if I am using Rails that day). I usually keep another window open with tabs to styling tools like http://www.colorhexa.com/.

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

#345

I have to ask: How on earth do you find the time to do this? As much as I'd love to do this in order to get my hands dirty on web development and out of systems, I can't ever fathom having the free time available every day consecutively. I mean, for someone "learn(ing) to code" on Day 1 and by Day 15 doing "Dropping Boxes", it just seems a little far fetched. Obviously you have had a good portion of coding experience…

seconded. day 46 you wrote a snake game using canvas manipulation? i call shenanigans.

460 hours of practice seems like PLENTY of time to learn to do that.

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

#346
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…

Well, the lesson I took away is that pottery students aren't smart enough to turn in 50 lb of unformed clay if that's all it takes to get the best grade.

(And that made-up anecdotes will take you pretty far.)

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay. I find this story very suspicious. Even theorists like to apply their work and prototype. It sounds more like they were scared into inaction…

"It sounds more like they were scared into inaction by the grade-weight, which is something I've seen in classes where one test determines the grade for the whole semester." I would love some deeper insight into this, do you have any sources? Thanks.

Completely implausible, unverifiable anecdote obviously chosen to favor a conclusion -> "WOW! How insightful."

"Hey, that doesn't match my experience." -> "Sources. Now."

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

#349

I have to ask: How on earth do you find the time to do this? As much as I'd love to do this in order to get my hands dirty on web development and out of systems, I can't ever fathom having the free time available every day consecutively. I mean, for someone "learn(ing) to code" on Day 1 and by Day 15 doing "Dropping Boxes", it just seems a little far fetched. Obviously you have had a good portion of coding experience…

Another possible explanation is that she is intelligent and motivated and you are an asshole.

Oh gosh, come off it. I agree with wellington's subsequent post that such contextual information is worth knowing because anyone looking to learn programming from scratch will probably be demotivated by this post. I mean, Github by itself will confuse from-scratch beginners! Imagine seeing that as your benchmark, and looking at your own work on day 10.

It's an amazing feat, and she clearly has much more aptitude (and dedication) for the skills than I do. I applaud what she's done. But I'm hard-pressed to believe she started with a blank slate, and I wouldn't want any true beginner to believe that either. I'm not saying that she knew even one programming language before starting, or that she had any sort of expertise whatsoever. But a rudimentary understanding of some key terms and concepts? Seems plausible-to-likely.

I don't think that diminishes the work in any way whatsoever. The work and the effort are amazing.

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

#350
post #338
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also possible that she's a fictional character (admittedly there isn't enough data proving otherwise). She does have a Twitter that's been active for a few years, and doesn't give an indication that she has prior programming experience. This would be quite the long con.

I've had a Twitter account for over a year and posted absolutely nothing to it. I wouldn't say "con", but I do find it implausible someone went from nothing to everything and was making full websites on day 1. I mean I've cranked out some personal web-apps over a weekend, but I usually spend the next week or so "fixing" them, which for me is how I learn - I have the framework of what I want to do, and then I figure o…

I've had a twitter account since May of 2008 and have less than twenty tweets. It just sits there, aging.
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