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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

#361

Post by melvinmt »

enraged_camel wrote: post #147
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…

There are two type of people in life. The first type graduates from college and their learning stops for the most part. They say to themselves, "well, I studied for four years and got a job, now it's finally time to sit back and relax." So they put in their regular 9-5 and then come home and waste their lives away by watching TV shows and playing video games and going out and getting drunk on weekends. Essentially, t…

The third type doesn't need college at all.

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

#362

Post by Aldo_MX »

wbl wrote: post #324
Aldo_MX wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "often finding formal education diabolical" TBH, as a self-educated developer, I perceive formal education as a premature optimization. It's a fact that one needs to develop certain skills and gain insight from the knowledge that reflects the experience of expert people, but it's also a fact that one won't need everything the first moment after graduation. I prefer to research and learn about something the moment I…

The point of an education is not to make money. The point of an education is to cultivate yourself and make yourself a better person. Idiot is the wrong word, but philistine is appropriate.

Attending school is not the only way to cultivate yourself and make yourself a better person; knowledge is vast and free.

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

#363

Post by bennyg »

reikonomusha wrote: post #243

I unfortunately have some doubts about the authenticity of the claims made. I know other people have already shared a similar opinion but I'd like to candidly provide my own in the event a beginner, intermediate, or even aspiring programmer happens to read this. I often teach programming. Not formally in school, but to friends and family who come to me to learn. When any of them begin to learn, there are always, alwa…

Almost all of that stuff you list is actually waaaaaay easier than you give it credit. Setting up a programming environment is not hard, and is done in parallel with programming. Don't like that font? Change it here. Want this hot key to open this because you're tired of clicking the menu every time? Then do it.

I started off learning Objective-C; I had an app in mind and the only one that could create what I wanted was me. I learned. A string? That's just characters in order. Float? Any number that could have decimals and that wasn't an integer (though it could be 5.0). An array? Just a list of objects in a specific order. A hash map? A collection of objects where a tag signifies what object is at that location. DEAD SIMPLE STUFF. This is easy-peezy work, and very easy to abstract in my brain. I had an app on the store in 3 months and 10,000 downloads by 6 months. My app was a hugely naive undertaking, that I pulled off, despite not knowing shit about programming and setting up systems before going in. It calculated the best drink specials in my college town. That's 10,000 downloads in my college town.

I've continued programming, because I like making stuff, and have random ideas that are usually fairly easy to experiment with and get working.

Now I'm an iOS Engineer.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design with a minor in Advertising. No knowledge is unattainable, or more sacred than the others. I'm sorry you think what Jennifer has done is just impossible to do. It's not.

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

#364

Post by jenniferDewalt »

lemonberry wrote: post #269

She coded an iOS app called ruHot in 2009. Lot's of dedication getting 180 sites done in 180 days. Not a whole lot of dedication to honesty though.

I drew the graphics for the splash screen and donated my iPhone to the cause. My two friends did the coding.

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

#365

Post by astrodust »

stokedmartin wrote: post #209
astrodust wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The chain of Xs reminds me of github's `green squares` signalling a push!

Some people take the "Always Be Pushing" mantra very seriously. That's exactly it.

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

#367

Post by BlackDeath3 »

dllthomas wrote: post #283
BlackDeath3 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coder != website developer, methinks. There is a world beyond the web, after all. At any rate, the word "coder" is just so... ugh ... you may as well get right to the point and simply refer to yourself as a brogrammer. "Coder", "coding", all of that, it just sounds so wannabe-hip. I cannot possibly be the only person who feels that way.

"Coding" has history: http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/code.html code 2. v. To write code. In this sense, always refers to source code rather than compiled. “I coded an Emacs clone in two hours!” This verb is a bit of a cultural marker associated with the Unix and minicomputer traditions (and lately Linux); people within that culture prefer v. ‘code’ to v. ‘program’ whereas outside it the reverse is normally true.

Thanks for the background. I understand that there is more to "coding"/"coder" than I implied, it's just seems that the words have become so appropriated that I now instantly associate them with the whole "brogrammer" thing.

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

#368

Post by ffrryuu »

PittedPrune wrote: post #277
jlgreco wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think roommates isn't a requirement (at least in most of those cities) either.

um, what? With tiny 400 square foot apartments going for 2500 in San Francisco... how can you possibly say that?

Why would anyone want to live in SF with that kind of prices is beyond me.

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

#369

Post by dragonwriter »

ffrryuu wrote: post #368
PittedPrune wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

um, what? With tiny 400 square foot apartments going for 2500 in San Francisco... how can you possibly say that?

Why would anyone want to live in SF with that kind of prices is beyond me.

The prices are because so many people want to live in SF.

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

#370

Post by dllthomas »

BlackDeath3 wrote: post #367
dllthomas wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Coding" has history: http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/code.html code 2. v. To write code. In this sense, always refers to source code rather than compiled. “I coded an Emacs clone in two hours!” This verb is a bit of a cultural marker associated with the Unix and minicomputer traditions (and lately Linux); people within that culture prefer v. ‘code’ to v. ‘program’ whereas outside it the reverse is normally true.

Thanks for the background. I understand that there is more to "coding"/"coder" than I implied, it's just seems that the words have become so appropriated that I now instantly associate them with the whole "brogrammer" thing.

Well, I'm gonna try to hang on to it; it's what my parents used when I was growing up.
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