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

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

#61

Post by fein » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

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…

I've been a pretty hardcore PHP guy for 3 years now, and know exactly how long it would have taken me to do all of this: probably 200 days on my own.

My biggest issue is stuff like this. Take a look at the JS from day 1-8, then look at day 9.

Day 8: http://jenniferdewalt.com/more_drop_shadow.html

Day 9: http://jenniferdewalt.com/bouncing_ball.html

That's a pretty massive jump in coding proficiency in a delta of one day.

This has nothing to do with marginalizing skill, it just seems like there was some outside help here, and that should probably be credited.

edit: I see a lot of different indent patterns on the JS as well. That kind of points me towards n different coders with at least two different text editor configs, or a good deal of copy->paste from SO.

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

#62

Post by jenniferDewalt » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

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.

I saved up some money so I could take the time to learn to code full time. I'm single and I eat a lot of ramen noodles.

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

#63

Post by mooreds » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:25 PM UTC

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 have a friend who talks about the flywheel model of learning. If, every day, you spend even 15 minutes towards your goal of what have you (aka, add even a little momentum to your flywheel), at the end of a year, you will have a lot of knowledge.

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

#64

Post by MartinMcGirk » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

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…

>saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependants is trivial

I have no dependants, I am 25 and I would love to be earning the kind of money in my tech job that made saving 6 months worth of expenses "trivial". Where are these jobs and how can I get one?

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

#65

Post by huu » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:33 PM UTC

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…

She said that it -has not- given her a comprehensive understanding of software development, not that it has.

Also agree with the other comments, this is pretty elitist. There's just no reason to comment and say, "well I'm not impressed".

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

#66

Post by jamesaguilar » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

MartinMcGirk wrote: post #64

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…

>saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependants is trivial I have no dependants, I am 25 and I would love to be earning the kind of money in my tech job that made saving 6 months worth of expenses "trivial". Where are these jobs and how can I get one?

San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, maybe Chicago. This list is not exhaustive.

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

#67

Post by jsogarro » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:36 PM UTC

Major props goes out to Jennifer. I agree. The best way to learn is to JFDI. Good stuff!

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

#68

Post by huu » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:37 PM UTC

jamesaguilar wrote: post #66

MartinMcGirk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependants is trivial I have no dependants, I am 25 and I would love to be earning the kind of money in my tech job that made saving 6 months worth of expenses "trivial". Where are these jobs and how can I get one?

San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, maybe Chicago. This list is not exhaustive.

Just make sure you don't live in those cities proper :P

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

#69

Post by benihana » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:38 PM UTC

jamesaguilar wrote: post #66

MartinMcGirk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependants is trivial I have no dependants, I am 25 and I would love to be earning the kind of money in my tech job that made saving 6 months worth of expenses "trivial". Where are these jobs and how can I get one?

San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, maybe Chicago. This list is not exhaustive.

All of those places have prohibitively high cost of living to make saving six months of salary very much not trivial. It's possible, but it isn't anywhere close to trivial.

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

#70

Post by MartinMcGirk » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

jamesaguilar wrote: post #66

MartinMcGirk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>saving 6 months worth of expenses on a tech salary when you have no dependants is trivial I have no dependants, I am 25 and I would love to be earning the kind of money in my tech job that made saving 6 months worth of expenses "trivial". Where are these jobs and how can I get one?

San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, maybe Chicago. This list is not exhaustive.

I was under the (perhaps false) impression that living costs were so much higher in these places as to make saving just as tough as working anywhere else on a lower salary?

If I'm wrong about that I really need to go get an American Visa from somewhere...