DEV Community: JungDaeSuh

What I learned - Error makes me a better programmer

JungDaeSuh — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 13:18:09 +0000

Note: The boot camp that I'm in is in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and does not offer courses in overseas (unless you can listen lectures in Korean). So this post is not to promote a particular boot camp or any boot camp.

I think there are some typos and grammatical error in this post. I'll fix them tomorrow.

It's been 9 weeks since I started learning programming full-time, and I wanted to share some new epiphany I had recently. That is, making error makes me a better programmer. To be more precise, making error and trying to fix them make me a better programmer.

I have heard that adding lines of code into existing program is excruciating. It may even bring down a whole system. So one must be very careful and thoughtful when writing code.

What I'm trying to convey is that when you're in learning phase, feel free to make many error. A good thing about programming is that the number of error you can make is almost limitless, given that you're practicing your skills, not actually working on applications currently used by users.

As someone who came from a domain whose number of trials is often limited, it was hard for me to try out code I've written at first. I had to force myself to run things, whether I felt sure about my code or not.

I realized the more I make error, the more I learned how to make things work.

For example, when I was learning how to use AWS VPC, RDS, lambda function, and NAT gateway, I had to re-create lambda functions a number of times because of some error. While it felt like I was wasting my time, since it could have been done at first try, my understanding of the relationship between the VPC, RDS, NAT gateway and lambda function deepened, as my number of tries increased.

Although it's shameful, my initial goal wasn't to understand the VPC and so on (it seemed daunting at first), but to get through the assignment I was given. Unintentionally, because of the error I encountered, I understood how virtual private clouds work.

I haven't worked on a real production yet, so I can only speak for those who just began to learn programming. And for those who just began to code, don't be afraid to make error. You'll remember and learn more from code that didn't work at first, rather than code that worked the first time.

5 weeks into full-time learning programming

JungDaeSuh — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 05:45:05 +0000

It's been five weeks since I started learning programming full-time, and I wanted to share some thoughts about pattern of learning process for programming I experienced.

After weeks of learning how to code, I learned that the pattern of learning programming is a constant switch between panicking "I have no idea what's going on. This instructor makes no sense. Why does this thing go here? I need materials that explain things a lot easier" to one day waking up and thinking "This makes sense. Okay, so this works because variable is this thing, and it goes from here to there."

As long as I stuck to things I was working on, it worked out one way or another in the end. And I realized grit is really important when it comes to programming (well grit is important in almost every field...).

So the lesson so far was don't panic when things don't make sense. Just "keep calm and code on."

What?? the Foobar Challenge?

JungDaeSuh — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 17:48:22 +0000

What do I do?

I'm a newb!!!!

for some reason, it won't let me upload a screen shot of my foobar challenge!

On Learning as a Group

JungDaeSuh — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 15:23:09 +0000

Note: The boot camp that I'm in is in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and does not offer courses in overseas (unless you can listen lectures in Korean). So this post is not to promote a particular boot camp or any boot camp.

There might be some types in this post. I'll re-read tomorrow and correct them.

It's been three weeks since I started a boot camp, and I wanted to share the benefits of learning in a group environment.

1. You're not alone.

As an aspiring developer who tried learning programming on my own, I find it very helpful and soothing that I am not alone in feeling frustrating at times when programs don't run or materials that I'm learning are difficult. It just helps psychologically.

When you're stuck, you can ask your peers about it. It is likely that there is at least one student/programmer who is ahead of you in terms of programming knowledge and can help you with your problem.

You also get to share and receive information that you otherwise would not have known. No matter how much you google, there can be at least one information that you didn't know but is extremely helpful. Plus, your peers might have friends who are already programmers working for companies and can share stories of their friends, which can give you insights and information you might not get on the internet.

Most importantly, the simple presence of others can motivate you and keep you on your toes when it comes to learning. I mean, we've all been there - very motivated at the beginning phase of learning, and then that motivation slowly drops, leading to slowed pace of learning. When I was learning alone, I was less disciplined, no matter how strong my willpower was. I think that's just human nature. We go easy on ourselves.

But when you see others working hard, you don't want to fall behind. So you work hard. That itself is enough to accelerate your learning, which can shorten your time for getting your first job as a developer.

2. You have instructors whom you can ask questions.

This depends on the program in you're in.

My instructor doesn't teach me everything about programming (he wants students to try things themselves first), but he does give guidance and tips on where to look for things and on career. Such guidance and advice can get me to my destination faster. (I acknowledge that I'm kind of obsessed with shortening time on learning. It's probably because I was stubborn on self-teaching for a long time only to realize that it's not an efficient way to spend time and to learn.)

Conclusion.

Although I mainly wrote this from the perspective of a boot camper, I highly recommend people to find others who are also in similar situations to learning together.

You don't necessarily need boot camps to enjoy the benefits of learning as a group. You can find people online and use zoom to learn together and share things. Study groups don't have experienced instructors, but it's still better than learning alone in my opinion.

If you're new, you learn from someone who's a head start in programming. If you're months ahead, you still learn by teaching others. Aristotle said "teaching is the highest form of understanding."

So while I admire those who got a job as a developer by self-teaching, I encourage people to seek study mates, or peers, whom you can learn together. Zoom works too.

What I Learned This Week - Week 2

JungDaeSuh — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 15:40:43 +0000

NOTE:

I'm posting my personal journey of participating in a boot camp, as a person who recently seriously started to learn programming. So it might not contain useful information at the moment. But hopefully, after four months, I will post things that are encouraging to aspiring developers, with current posts as evidence of how much I have grown since the beginning.

About learning

It's been two weeks since the boot camp started, and I feel like I have learned a lot more this past two weeks than what I have learned on my own for the past several months, although it was on and off.

My motivation for joining the boot camp was to put myself in an immersive learning environment with people who are also motivated. I've tried self-learning, but no matter how much I was diligent, I realized my learning progress can't be as fast as someone who learns in a community with wealth of information and with people who are very motivated. After all, humans are social creatures and we learn from one another.

Before joining the boot camp, I did some due diligence on the boot camp by reading blogs from people who have participated in previously, and I sensed that the teaching quality might not be as good as I hoped it would be. (I was quite right. Rather than explaining why and how things work the way they work, their teaching style is more like "Don't try to understand. Just do it.")

But despite the shortcoming, I am quite pleased with how much I have learned and progressed over the past two weeks. Because of the assignments' deadlines and of the other people who are working hard in the same space (well, a virtual space. We are learning in a metaverse called a "gather town." We each have our own avatar and communicate via web cams), I push myself more than when I was learning alone. For any shortfall of the learning materials, I google it, and apparently, one of the virtues of being a good developer is being good at googling.

They say "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together." (Not sure about the origin. Some say it's an African proverb.)

So, I think I made the right decision.

Today I learned - Day 13 (25 SEP 2021, Sat)

JungDaeSuh — Sat, 25 Sep 2021 16:02:04 +0000

NOTE:

I'm posting my personal journey of participating in a boot camp and of becoming a developer. So it might not contain useful information at the moment. But hopefully, after four months, I will post things that are encouraging to aspiring developers, with current posts as evidence of how much I have grown since the beginning.

Hours put-in today: 7h 39mins clocked.

What I did/learned:

Read the FLASK documentation to have a better understanding of FLASK. It really helped me understand FLASK a lot. For anyone who just went through a video tutorial of FLASK, I recommend reading the documentation.
Studied about the HTTP request methods. Beforehand, I thought "get" and "post" methods were a part of ajax. I now know that it's one of the HTTP request methods, and Jquery.ajax() is a part of Jquery library that performs "an asynchronous HTTP (Ajax) request."
built some web app with GET and POST APIs (followed a tutorial, but I only referred to it only when I needed help).
followed a tutorial of making a web app that shows uploaded images users upload from their local environment.
Description: client side(upload files) -> server side -> MongoDB -> server side -> client side.

Learned of:

Template literals. ${}. For a few days, I thought ${} was part of jqeury. So I searched hours trying to find out the difference between $() and ${}. I now know that the former is jquery, and the latter is ES6 JS.
The concepts of client-side rendering and server-side rendering.

Today I learned - Day 10/11 (22/23 SEP 2021)

JungDaeSuh — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 04:25:00 +0000

Things I learned

AWS

git action
vpc
Security Groups (similar to a firewall)
Elastic IP (when you want to reserve an IP)
EC2
ELB

Started a group project

Worked on our project's proof of concept
Started working on our minimum viable product
My role: work with YouTube APIs to recommend videos that meet the users' need.

About our project

Proposed to make a home workout website. When people select which body part they want to work out on a human figure, the website will recommend videos that shows corresponding workout.

Today I learned - Day 7 (19 SEP 2021, Sun)

JungDaeSuh — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 15:03:00 +0000

Note: I posting this as a personal log of my journey of becoming a developer. Along the way, as I accumulate knowledge, I will post some useful and coherent information and stories so that they may be useful to other readers as well.

Progress:

Completed a basic course on web development that covers basic front-end (HTML/CSS/JS/Jquery/ajax), back-end(flask), and AWS launching.
Started a course on algorithm and data structures.
Solved 2 algorithm problems. (leap year problem included)

my first web page ink (written in Korean)
(Not a secure website, so beware)

What I learned:

How to launch a website using AWS and FileZilla.
"No hangups" command to enable a website to run on its own.

# for running a website
nohup python (file name) &

# for turning off a website
ps -ef | grep '(file name)'

kill -9 <processID>
kill -9 <processID>

Today I learned day 5

JungDaeSuh — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 16:04:03 +0000

Sparta Coding Club: Camp Learning for Tomorrow - Today I learned Day 5(9.17.2021.Fri)

Notes for Future References

API:

GET: read
POST: create, update, delete

AJAX

      $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "",
        data: {},
        success: function (response) {
          console.log(response)

        }
      })

"Type" refers to a type of HTTP method it's using.
"url" for the url where you want to request data.
"data" for data to SUBMIT. In this case, the function is only for requesting, so no need for "data."
"success" - "A callback function to be executed when Ajax request succeeds" reference: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_httpmethods.asp

Today's Event

A lecture from a backend developer about how to learn and improve as a programmer (e.g. reflection and feedback from others), and open source projects and git and github.
A code review with study mates.
An app-making-test with only one hour given. Only completed about 1/5 of it. Learned a lot about what I need to learn and improve.
- The test required some understanding of jquery, ajax, and flask.

Note: I'm an aspiring developer from South Korea who just started a boot camp. I will be posting almost daily as a log to record my progress.