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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

#81

Post by tjr »

fein wrote: post #61
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 d…

I wrote simple learning programs along these lines in C and Java in the 1990s. I didn't have a web page to publish my progress on then, but once I got to the point of being able to create ANY graphics in Java, I can readily imagine myself moving from that to the bouncing ball sort of thing in a day of concentrated effort.

So that alone doesn't suggest to me anything deceptive afoot.

I doubt my indentation patterns were very consistent at first either. :-) Especially if I was learning from one book on one day and another book on another day.

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

#82

Post by benihana »

JPKab wrote: post #14
andyl wrote: post #6

Her ability to attract attention was remarkable. She should become a marketer or spokesperson, not a coder.

Your ability to be a dick is remarkable. You should be a mall cop, not a coder.

Wow sport. A little angry and quick to judge?

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

#83

Post by segmondy »

fein wrote: post #61
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 d…

lol, well, maybe she is a 10x in the making and you are not! just because something will take you 200 days doesn't mean it will take other's the same amount of time.

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

#84

Post by jamesaguilar »

MartinMcGirk wrote: post #70
jamesaguilar wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I would say the difference is more that people who live in these places mistake their wants for needs at a higher rate than elsewhere. It is not terribly difficult to save in SF. See my other comments in this thread.

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

#85

Post by jisaacstone »

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?

I knew a guy who lived off 1/3 of his salary of ~40k. when you are single you can cut housing expenses by getting a few house-mates. Housing is the main expense for most people.

That was in Idaho

Here in the valley I make a typical dev salary and have 2 dependents but still save 1k, invest 1k and put 1k down against my principal every month.

Tech jobs pay well and if you can't easily save large amounts of money as a developer you'd better be having a whole lot of fun.

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

#86

Post by breckinloggins »

benihana wrote: post #69
jamesaguilar wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nope. That's why the no dependents part is essential. If you are single and willing to live with roommates, you will be able to navigate the "high cost of living" pretty successfully.

I'm living quite comfortably in San Francisco and spending a fraction of what I was spending in Texas. Why?

- No car. No gas. No upkeep. No payments. No insurance. No inspections. No car.

- Roommates. I HATE living alone so this was a no-brainer. If you insist on having your own place, then yeah it's probably going to sting. If not you can often find good deals.

- Food. A tech job often provides free or free-ish food. Plus I can get reasonably-priced staples at the market on the corner of my block. The culture here makes it much less likely I'll spend $400/mo at Olive Garden, Chili's, and The Red Lobster.

- Stuff. Don't need much. When I was in Texas I lived FAR away from anyone who really shared my geeky interests. I'm surrounded by them here. I simply don't have the urge to buy so much stuff to keep me occupied. I have the stuff I need and I spend most of my time doing things with people. These things are often free. Speaking of which...

- "funcheap". SF is famous for this (as is NYC). You can ALWAYS find cool stuff to do that costs little or no money. You can also, of course, find stuff that costs a lot of money. It's your choice, day by day.

Now if I couldn't stand to live with roommates or had a family to support, this would be a whole different story. Also, "high cost of living" really means $$$/sq ft vs $$/sq ft. It IS outrageous in places, but I'm much happier in my apartment with 1 bedroom to myself than I was in a 2600 square foot house in Texas. So yes, price per square foot is going to hurt on paper, but if "size doesn't matter", you might end up paying less by actual dollars.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I'm pretty passionate about this since I stuck around in places that weren't right for me a lot longer than I should have... simply because I let popular rhetoric convince me that only dot com millionaires could afford to live in the Bay Area. They were wrong, and I was a fool for listening to them instead of exploring it for myself. Don't make my mistakes.

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

#87

Post by thenomad »

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…

This approach definitely works for cooking - it's been tried before.

See, for example, the Julie/Julia project, where one woman decided to cook her way through the entirety of "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" by Julia Child. ( http://web.archive.org/web/20021217011704/http://blogs.salon... )

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

#88

Post by jenniferDewalt »

robodale wrote: post #56
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 - p…

I think this is spot on. It's really easy to get caught up in feeling like you need to know everything before you even begin. It gets overwhelming really quickly.

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

#89

Post by Volscio »

mooreds wrote: post #63
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.

I used to agree with this but what I've seen in practice is a lot of people who have half-assed their way through beginner tutorials but have no actual practical grasp of how to do a non-guided project.

What she's done is pretty difficult -- executing a new concept daily -- and it's amazing she managed to keep it up when most others would drop out/fail.

I personally think "a lot of knowledge" comes through those lost hours spent fixing obscure, annoying problems and bugs and inconsistencies that force someone to really think through how that system works.

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

#90

Post by astrodust »

mooreds wrote: post #63
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.

It's also called the "Seinfeld Method" (http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...) or "Don't break the chain."
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