Google it

So, it’s been a month since I started my coding journey and a couple of things have happened. Let’s dive into it.

Learnings:

Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration

As I started coding and learning, I was surprised by the number of open-source projects and collaboration across different coding communities. People around the world are creating user-friendly code that can be used by anyone following simple steps. Bounteous amounts of Youtube videos of people explaining concepts using different tools. I built a simple website (more on this later) and used different components from people around the world.

I learned about GitHub, a community where developers upload their code source from different projects and collaborate with each other to build awesome web pages, algorithms, and digital products. I managed to use a couple of components from other people and it was surprisingly easy; very intuitive; really awesome. This was truly inspiring because, despite having learned on my own for a month, I felt supported by strangers across the web.

How can you learn? Google it.

During this month, I searched for hundreds of questions on Google. Google even asked me several times if I was a robot when I was looking for “how to connect to a server”. I have to say the CAPTCHA image recognition is really annoying. Especially when it is the one thing standing between you and the answer to your query on Google.

Think before you code

Finally, I learned the importance of thinking before diving in and coding. This means one must design the system before working on it. Organize your ideas before executing them. This can help you address any problem in a more organized way and avoid future setbacks.

Deliverables

Since I started learning, I have completed a Udemy Web Development Bootcamp and learned about basic technologies, particularly Javascript, to build digital products.

After this, I finished the first render of a website for an uncle of mine. Here’s my first attempt.

Website: https://testbjjb2.herokuapp.com

Github Code Repository: https://github.com/santiagorodriguezbermudez/React-App

Finally, I’ve joined a team of awesome people to prototype a mental health startup. In a nutshell, we want to link mental health specialists and people looking for mental health services. Although I did not code in this initiative, I hope to apply some of my lessons learned in this real project. If you’re interested in hearing more about this, please fill this information.

Rookies’ mistakes

It’s not a race!

One of my first priorities was to finish two websites by the end of the month. I rush through all of the concepts to try to finish this as quickly as possible.

I thought I would finish the website in two days; instead, it took six. Moreover, the scope of the project was much broader. I wanted to create a platform myself so that my uncle could manage his own content without using tools like Wordpress. Not surprisingly, I failed. I bit off more than I could chew. However, I learned that I must take it slow and take my time to fully understand concepts before trying to use them. Since I was so eager at first, frustration was inevitable. However, after a while, I finally accepted that I had to be patient with my process.

Attention to detail is extremely important

This one time I spent over three hours looking for a F@%$cking bug that turned out to be a typo. Instead of writing “notes.map” I wrote “notes.Map”. When coding, you must pay close attention to everything you’re doing, otherwise, things will not work out.

If you have any tips on how to pay more attention to detail, please let me know!

Next steps

As of April 27th, I started a learning course at Microverse, so next time I’ll probably have more to say on that. I also intend to move forward with the mental health startup. I will let you know how things turn out. Finally, I hope to prototype a second web page by then.

That’s all. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you have any feedback please share! You probably have more experience than me, so please let me know.

Until next time. Stay safe, stay happy.

(On April 2020, I started a personal journey to learn how to code. This post is part of that journey)