One Does Not Simply Learn To Code Online

It’s not just subtle nuances that you need to be aware of. There’s all sorts of technicalities and bad habits that you could pick up unknowingly. Coding is difficult, riddled with weird commands, semi-colons and tabbing/spacing. The very development environment you choose could determine your fate. Not with a super dedicated and capable human instructor could you do this. It is folly.

Have You Always Wanted To Learn Coding/Programming?

But haven’t had the time? Nor the discipline? While there’s plenty of coding bootcamps (most notably General Assembly’s classes), and a whole multitude of online schools such as Codecademy, Udacity etc, it’s difficult — believe me — I have tried all of the above, and am still trying.

Another “Learn-To-Code-Online” Platform — Learn.co by Flatiron

Imagine my delight/frustration when Flatiron emailed me about their latest and greatest online campus: Learn.co (Note: Flatiron was one of the original coding bootcamps that offer 12-weeks fulltime coding courses). I couldn’t stop my curiosity and I just had to sign up for an account immediately (I chose the free Javascript course). And what greeted me was a (very) welcoming letter by Avi Flombaum, co-founder of Flatiron School, who said

By gaining this skill you are learning a craft that shapes the world, and with that will come opportunities to change the world

Talk about inspiring! I’m hooked!

Same same but different

On the surface, Learn.co’s interface seems similar to Codecademy’s, some instructions for you to follow on the left, and some buttons for you to click.

But here the difference ends: because one of my bugbears with codecademy is that while it may help you learn programming, it doesn’t really give you a sense of how programmers does it in the real world, in a real development environment, with terminal/consoles, text editors etc. So imagine my surprise when I had to download a IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that is modelled off ATOM (it’s a text editor).

Follow Me On My Journey To Learn Javascript

I’m going to try coding/learning every (other) day — Another amazing thing about Learn.co is that they’ve really internalized Jerry Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” productivity hack (read more on lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret)

Follow me as I try to keep up my “Learning Streak”!

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