Introduction
Yesterday I accomplished my first milestone on my way to become a professional front-end developer by completing the first course out of 6 at FreeCodeCamp.
I already knew a bit about html and css but I learned quite a few new tricks that I'll be able to use moving forward. Next one that I want to complete is the "Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures Certification" which should take me around 300 hours to complete.
It's Never Too Late
It's never too late to learn to code. Check out the answer I found on quora when someone asked if it was too late to learn how to code: (I paraphrase but you can check out the full answer here
No, it’s never, ever too late. I’m writing this answer because so many other replies, especially from “career programmers”, just have no clue.
After spending 20 years in a sales, marketing and business strategy career, I started programming a few months before my 39th birthday (the reason is an entirely unrelated story). I’m now 42, so that was about 3 1/2 years ago.
I taught myself to program by reading code, code documentation, and code comments on GitHub. After I learned the basics I started reading books to deepen my knowledge. But what helped me learn quickly was this: I tried to find existing code projects that seemed really interesting, so that I could find something to aspire to. I then started looking for “code challenges” that I could do, with a goal of accomplishing one challenge a day (when feasible).
[...]
As of today, I have published 1,200 open source code projects, most of which were created in one day, or within a couple of hours. This is me jonschlinkert (Jon Schlinkert):
My projects have been downloaded ~3 billion times in the past 18 months
My projects are downloaded nearly 300 million times a month (check for yourself: Stats for jonschlinkert)
Downloads have increased an average of 15–20% per month for the past 18–22 months (sometimes less, sometimes more)
65 of my projects are downloaded more than 1 million times a month each
My code is used by NASA, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and tens of thousands of other companies.
In the spirit of encouraging anyone who is hesitant to start programming because of age, I am contacted by recruiters daily, and have received offers from dozens of Fortune 500 companies this year (career-wise, it turns out that focusing on open-source is a great way to get yourself known).
Don’t listen to doubters, and don’t overcomplicate this decision. Just ask yourself if you think you’ll enjoy it (once you get past the basics). Join GitHub, browse for projects that seem interesting, and start writing some code!
My Coding Regime
Coding Everyday
I figured that if I ever want to get somewhere with coding that I had to code everyday. I'm currently trying to fit 2hrs a day, 7 days a week. It's been 3 weeks and I've already seen my learning curve increasing.
Mentorship
Once a week I sit down with my friend and he guides me through the steps to understand the Steem Blockchain development environment. I have yet to conceptualize how the pieces fit together but everytime we meet, something clicks and make more sense than the week before.
Stick-To-It-Tivess
Consistency is key, in the beginning, it's really easy to lose what you've learned. I feel that there is a tipping point where the basic foundation will be solid enough that I won't fear to lose all that's I've learned by slacking off for a week.
Why
Get ready for the world of tomorrow...
Learn to Code! Everything Else Can Come Later!
Photo by Goran Ivos on Unsplash
I have a similar schedule. I have worked through many free sites but have not had the break through moment yet. Currently trying to learn more basics from EDx Course but I also strive to check out freeCodeCamp.
The main problem for me is starting to implement the fundamentals into actual programs. I think I will have to create a github account this weekend and start creating really basic stuff to push myself over the edge.
Good luck on your progress.
Congratulations. Coding is like art. If there is one recommendation I would make from the profession I was in a decade ago it would be "Always intialize a variable and always reset it." That one lesson will save you hours of debugging time when problems do not make sense.
You are absolutely right it is never too late to learn.
I always liked to work with html format with my website but learning javascript would be great to learn how to code would be luxury feeding our brain with something new helps us to improve and we could help improve steemit with new applications.
So true ! If you want to learn something bad enough, you just have to freakin do it!
Right now I am studying Spanish! I remind my self, a little a day will go a long way!!😉👍
I jsut graduated with my bachelors and now I think it’s time to get started , anywhere specific I should start ? I’m eager to learn and I believe it could come in handy
I would love to learn to do that kind of thing but my brain is not coding numbers jajajajaja my brain only encodes Musical Notes, but it is true what you say, it is never too late to learn what you really like and you are passionate everyone has a goal in life and who likes this type of coding, so they pay attention to what this publication talks about, learn the more things one learns the more our knowledge is fed, I learn a lot more from my instrument that is the Violin every day I play I learn a new technique and I develop much better. So let's go whoever wants can
Upvoted and resteemedThis is a great motivational post: thank you, @cryptoctopus!
A big hug from @amico!
"Get ready for the world of tomorrow..."
Damn right!
Good Luck, you won't regret it!
I'm a self-taught Freelance Developer & Designer following a career change from a Domestic Electrician. It started as a curiosity on how video games were made and it went from there. After discovering the creative freedom programming and design brings, along with the impact digital technology has on the world, I wouldn't turn back. Even if I do spend more time debugging than I care to admit 😂
It was really nice to code... I already forgot those html and php because there already made modules already coded. I only use some of the basic coding. It’s great you are learning it. Its great to see people know the code. Keep it up Sir!
Happy to see you completing your ist milestone of coding..
Coding is not easy to learn but when we have a motivation in doing something we can do it..
As the world is becoming much dependent of computer science which coding is becoming more important..
Therefore learn coding before it is too late..
I just don't have the motivation to just start learning coding.
I start working on it. And get bored in like 10-15 minutes and give up :(
IDK. I guess I am just too lazy
I want to code too, it's a nice thing to learn 'cause with it you can get a nice position in a job or just work in your house the free times you have, really need to try that.
this is absolutely true and with the future of the world getting more to the tech side, it will pay i the future to be skilled in writing computer programs, developing apps and websites and also learning new languages increases the brain capacity which i likeCongrats on the milestone @cryptoctopus.
I really don't know much about coding, but I wish I can learn so much from about it. Thank you for sharing
What you said is right. Some of us are having a little challenge which is the way people charge us to teach us
Can I just ask how you came to the decision to choose your area of specialisation, and from that, which course progression to take please ?
And congrats on getting through the first phase, onwards and upwards mate:-)
I like coding but combining steeming and coding have not been easy for me. I am a front end developer as well. One of the best place to buy courses is udemy and treeshouse.
Congratulations on taking steps to learn to code. I've been doing web development for just over 12 years and it is a very fun and rewarding.
Never to late to code i am inspired by post, been thinking about this age of a thing ...
a very informative blog I hope I can learn more in coding. Your truly a great person. yeah your principles in life are right and your motivation is very captivating :) nice bro!
It's fun because a lot of people says that the world of tomorrow will not requiered anymore coders, only a small part will be "super coders" and develop the tools that everybody will use to design whatever they want to design without knowing what's behind in terms of coding stuff.
But for sure it will definitively help you in the next twenty years or so ;o)
Even if you're not actively practicing every day, it's good to be in the mindset of thinking about how the underlying programming works whenever you engage with software. If you see an interesting feature in a piece of software you're using, try to think about how it was done and how you would go about doing something similar. Or, if something doesn't seem to be working very well, think about why it doesn't work and how you might try to fix it.
If you're regularly engaging with open-source software like Steemit, the great thing is that you can then go search the actual code and see how close your conclusions are.
Wow,that's why I always fall for your post,it helps newbies Everytime,am willing to see you in real life I swear,you are such a great guy man
I wish great success in your(s) project(s) !
have an awesome day !hello @cryptoctopus ! Yeah ! I would love to learn to code ! I work as an artist and I really see some relations between those kind of creations !
I've told my son about the FreeCodeCamp site you have been mentioning. He has looked at it and plans to get going with it once exams are over. I think I might have to give it a whirl as well.
It's never too late to learn new things! You're thinking big, like your vision! Code is really going to be the future!
Interesting website, lately I realised how important coding is and try to learn some coding as well. Do you recommend it to someone who only know a bit of basics?
You are correct, I left school very early in my teens and had to work in order to support my family. It was not until much later that I started to teach myself into basic carpentry, camera, video, computers, etcetera.
So most of the things I know today I taught myself.
Wow awesome @cryptoctopus. I had thought about it, and I do think it takes a lot of time, but not impossible. But to be ready up to lever in a few years you would need to do it everyday I think, and I dont have the time to do that unfortunately.
Nice post you have. Interesting! By the way, Please don't forget to follow our blogs and vote. Thank you.
Way to go cryptoctopus!
Congratulations on completing the first course out of six at Freecodecamp!
Wow you are really dedicated, coding 7 days a week, I hope you succeed at it =)
I have a colleagure who has a degree in biology. However, he doesn't seem to like his job much, so that he invested his time to learn PHP.
Now, he is a senior Front-end developer in my team.
That's awesome @cryptoctopus - great work. The more you code, the more you learn to code.
PHP is another useful language for web development. WordPress and Facebook are both built with PHP.
JW Weatherman has been talking a lot recently about why it's important that more people learn to code. Here's his recent video:
Also, he's also working on a ‘learn math and coding‘ game that teaches fundamental coding principles at mathbot.com.
Hope that helps. 👍
Congrats on your coding milestone :) you are very smart! never too late to learn new things... keep up the awesome work.
Cheers,
Mel Xx
! Thanks just started the curriculum and eager to learn :)
@cryptoctopus Thanks for your this very informative post and motivation too. It has really motivated me to do something and it's never to late. Congratulations for your achieve ment.
@cryptoctopus Thanks for your this very informative post and motivation too. It has really motivated me to do something and it's never to late. Congratulations for your achieve ment.