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After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

blog.jenniferdewalt.com

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Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#51

Post by jenniferDewalt »

tomasien wrote: post #24

I think the coolest thing about watching the project is that some of the ideas are like, actually good ideas. Maybe not huge ideas, but they're good ideas. I especially like Open Note. I always thought the bottleneck for Jennifer would be thinking of 180 ideas in time to make them into websites, but nope!

I really like Open Note as well and it's definitely on the table for a more fleshed out reboot in the coming weeks.

Toward the end of the project, I started having trouble coming up with ideas that I could do in just one day. I started getting really excited about building bigger, more involved projects. That's when I knew 180 days was exactly the right time-frame for the project.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#52

Post by dragonwriter »

mseebach wrote: post #33
jorgeleo wrote: post #12

"The project certainly hasn’t given me a comprehensive understanding of software development, but it has laid a broad foundation for me to jump off of" No it has not, and no it has not. Don't get me wrong A+ for the effort... but it is a very small niche oriented effort. Comprehensive? Watch Rich Hickey talks ( http://www.infoq.com/author/Rich-Hickey ), try reading and exercising data structures (b-tree, rb-tree, bit…

That's pretty elitist. You seem to confuse "coder" with "computer scientist" or "software engineer". As the ecosystem of toolsets, frameworks and libraries mature, the number of opportunities for well-informed "commoners" with the right motivation to make computers do what they want them to increases violently. Lemma 1: Simple CRUD-style web-apps and scripts can be very useful. Lemma 2: Before-mentioned tools can be…

> That's pretty elitist.

I think its accurate, not "elitist".

> You seem to confuse "coder" with "computer scientist" or "software engineer".

The claim was that the experience provided a broad foundation with regard to "software development". That is a broad field. Lots of experience in CRUD-style web apps isn't a broad base for "software development" generally, its a narrow (but potentially deep within that narrow domain) base.

That's not to say its not a useful base, but its not broad. Also note that the response in GP to the claim of a broad base -- while pointing out that it was not broad -- also wasn't judgemental in way which justifies the claim of elitism. It explicitly recognized the project as great and encouraged continuing from there.

> These two combined suggests that the author can indeed be a perfectly productive and effective creator of computer programs. I see no reason "coder" isn't a perfectly good title for such a person.

Nothing in GP was contrary to these points, so you seem to be arguing against things no one said.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#54

Post by dkokelley »

ddoolin wrote: post #25

I seriously wish I could do this. Does she ever talk about how it's possible for her to afford to do this? 10 hours a day learning sounds great but really isn't feasible for (I'm guessing) a very large majority of people.

One way I've heard personal/professional development described is as follows: "You have two jobs (three if you have a family). You put in ~40 hours/week for your employer, and ~20 hours/week for yourself. In those 20 hours, you work on yourself (both physically and mentally). Exercise, read books, learn new things, develop new skills, improve yourself. Ten hours per day is probably not realistic if you work full time (unless you can overlap your time somehow). An hour before and after work, along with some free time on the weekends should be enough to get started.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#55

Post by jenne313 »

bolder88 wrote: post #49
petea wrote: post #38

I don't know why she has never mentioned someone she worked with at all. I commented about this about her 70 days ago. --- 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 Rai…

She's a she. It fits into the whole hacker news agenda of championing women in tech. The fact it's not true doesn't really matter. If a man had done the exact same project, no one would care. So, well done her for being a woman.

I wish that I had the karma to downvote you for relevance.

Like you said, "If you post some idiotic comment, and 1,000 people agree with you, that's quite a powerful feedback loop."

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#56

Post by robodale »

GuiA wrote: post #7

This is fantastic. Especially inspiring to me, more than the fact that she learned how to code, is the fact that she dove into something that she had no background in, and after 180 days she came out with a solid understanding of the basics of programming; enough to do stuff on her own (and, combined with her graphic design/illustration skills, probably enough to do freelance webdev or get a junior level position in…

I spent 90 days learning (and implementing) how to get ideas for my next product by calling business owners in my target market and asking what they need to help their business. I now have owners waiting with money-in-hand for me to solve their problems. I'm spending the next 90 days pre-selling and getting the actual product wireframed for demos, then built, then scaling marketing while I sell sell sell...

TL;DR - pick something you want to do and immerse yourself in this. Every day take action. Learn only what you need to advance yourself forward right now.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#57

Post by jenniferDewalt »

adt2bt wrote: post #9

Congratulations, Jennifer. I really appreciate the lessons learned here. Like my favorite college professor (and I'm sure many others, as it is a fairly popular quote) would say: Sometimes you have something that looks really ugly and gross. You can liken it to having to eat a slimy, bumpy frog. The best way to eat the frog, is just to swallow it. Once you get in the habit of swallowing your frogs, the rest of your d…

I love the idea of exploring the cuisine of other countries in a systematic way! Besides being super delicious, what a fun way to share a learning experience with family and friends.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#58

Post by Gigablah »

bolder88 wrote: post #49
petea wrote: post #38

I don't know why she has never mentioned someone she worked with at all. I commented about this about her 70 days ago. --- 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 Rai…

She's a she. It fits into the whole hacker news agenda of championing women in tech. The fact it's not true doesn't really matter. If a man had done the exact same project, no one would care. So, well done her for being a woman.

Insecure much?

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#59

Post by dgabriel »

bolder88 wrote: post #49
petea wrote: post #38

I don't know why she has never mentioned someone she worked with at all. I commented about this about her 70 days ago. --- 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 Rai…

She's a she. It fits into the whole hacker news agenda of championing women in tech. The fact it's not true doesn't really matter. If a man had done the exact same project, no one would care. So, well done her for being a woman.

That is not true.

Re: After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

#60

Post by furyofantares »

jorgeleo wrote: post #12

"The project certainly hasn’t given me a comprehensive understanding of software development, but it has laid a broad foundation for me to jump off of" No it has not, and no it has not. Don't get me wrong A+ for the effort... but it is a very small niche oriented effort. Comprehensive? Watch Rich Hickey talks ( http://www.infoq.com/author/Rich-Hickey ), try reading and exercising data structures (b-tree, rb-tree, bit…

It might not be a "broad foundation" but I think it is a "broad foundation to jump off of".

The foundation I jumped off of was being able to edit numbers in GORILLAS.BAS to change the size of the explosions.

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