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Writing, its been great. I’ll always love you. But you’re a hobby, not a jobby.
After much pondering on what to do with my life, I’ve decided I’m going to learn how to code and build beautiful things on the internet.
The 6-month mental journey leading up to my decision went a little like this:
*reads Wait But Why article on AI* => “Working in AI would be cool” => “I should study Machine Learning” => “Oh shit, I don’t have the maths to study Machine Learning” => “Maybe if I do a Computer Science masters I can get into Machine Learning after” => “Whats that [friend], you’re going to China to learn Kung-Fu?!” =>
*Goes to China for 3 months to learn Kung-Fu*
=> “Why apply for a Computer Science degree and maybe not get in and graduate in a year-and-a-half when I can do a bootcamp and be able to do shit by June?” => “Actually maybe I want to be a developer and think more about AI down the line” =>
*does a bit of research into intensive developer courses, finds Makers Academy*
*applies to Makers Academy*
After two weeks of whipping up an application, manically learning the basics of Ruby (a programmer-friendly coding language) and going through the interview process I received a phone call informing me I’ve been accepted.
And just like that I have a path and real direction for the first time since graduating 2 1/2 years ago. I’m a busy human again. It feels great. If all goes well, by summer I’ll be a real functioning person with a regular income and mad coding skills.
So what is it? Makers Academy describe themselves as “a fully immersive, full-time computer programming course in London” aka “Oxbridge meets the Royal Marines for developers.” They make it pretty clear that it’s bloody intense, and that’s a big part of why I chose them.
Freelancing has taught me that I need deadlines and pressure to work well. I’m told I’ll be at Makers 9am-7pm weekdays and have a 8–16hour project every weekend. I’m told I’ll breathe code.
Also, when you finish you get to bang a gong.
Now I’ve got 3 weeks to get ready for the pre-course. I’ve done a bit of digging into the blogs of ex-Makers students to find out what’s in store. It looks like the pre-course consists of getting comfortable with the Command Line, Git (a version control platform for coders use to store their work and contribute the work of others) and getting more comfortable with Ruby. So I’m gonna try and get a head start with some Codecademy stuff in the meantime. In addition to that, Codewars has been superb in pushing my Ruby skills, so I’ll aim to carry on with that, as well as the Ruby Koans, which simultaneously introduce coding and Zen Philosophy.
Codecademy does a lot of hand-holding and tells you that you’re the best the whole time, which is well and good for the first baby steps in the world of coding, but soon after you learn that you’ve been lulled into a false sense of security.
Codewars is kind of the opposite, challenging you to create code to solve brain-melting problems (kata) that require manipulation of the techniques learnt in Codecademy and a fair bit of lateral-thinking. Each kata is set to a kyu (based on ranking in Japanese Martial Arts). You start at 8kyu and work your way up by completing progressively harder kata. After a few days I’ve managed to stumble to 6kyu (which I’m feeling pretty chuffed about).
On a typical kata I’ll think for 25 minutes and write 12 lines of code, before submitting it and seeing an elegant 1 line solution by someone else, 40% of which I understand. One of the best features on Codewars is just that: being able to view other users’ solutions to a particular kata after submitting your own (sorted by ‘best practices’ by the community of Codewarriors). Looking through them is humbling and a constant reminder of just how much more there is to learn.
AND in addition to all that, I’m teaching myself (on the advice of Nikesh at makers) how to type all over again. I’m using TypingClub, which it turns out is a pretty great site (and free!). So far I’ve learnt that my current typing technique is atrocious and am relearning the keyboard key-by-key. The general idea is to use all 10 fingers and to make the movement of each as economical as possible. However, relearning something I’ve been doing nearly every day since I can remember is proving to be fucking confusing. Kind of fun though, in a perverted way. TypingClub tells me my typing speed is 15wpm. BABOOM.
So here’s the latest version of me, a code-warrior in training. Feeling a bit daunted, but as the Koans remind me, “mountains are merely mountains.”
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