Learning to code in my spare time is hard

Clare Spencer
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read
Our Skype coding sessions start with a run-down of his sartorial choices that morning

I’m trying to learn to code in my evenings and weekends. I can’t lie, I am massively deflated and currently doubting whether this is possible.

The resources I have are:

1/Any free courses online. (I’m using Chris Pine’s Learn to Code as a reference and desperately need something more accessible — please put your recommendations in the comments).

2/My brother’s help over Skype. (He’s a developer, but I’m sure he’d also try to help even if he weren’t).

3/My time — evenings and weekends outside of work, when my full-time job doesn’t encroach on that.

One of those resources has massively depleted: time.

I have two big projects at work which I haven’t been given time for so have to do in my own time. Eeeuuuurgh. This is ontop of my day-to-day job which consistently takes longer than the hours I am contracted for.

Then human error comes in — in the form of a hangover. I got a little tipsy on Saturday which, because of my advanced years / abuse of my liver in my youth, means that I had a hangover ALL day on Sunday — the day I was meant to be finishing my work project, then coding with my brother.

Despite this, I ploughed on LIKE A TROUPER and spent two hours with my brother, building my new program.

(It is going to test me on my Portuguese verb conjugations and it is going to be awesome if it is going to be.)

Only we built nothing because my brother is obsessed with testing. He even runs a test where 1 equals 2 to make sure it fails.

My mind wasn’t at optimum operating capability. So I became a bit passive.

Becoming passive meant that when my brother was busy testing, I was screaming out in my head WHY DO WE HAVE TO TEST THIS, WHY CAN’T I JUST BUILD IT AND IF IT WORKS, THAT IS THE TEST.

But those words didn’t come out of my mouth.

So we were left with a test, which when you run it it has no errors.

Here it is in all its multi-coloured glory:

Whoopie. What exactly can I do with that?

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