Today marks the 85th day of my Journey of #100DaysOfCode. For those of you who don't know, #100DaysOfCode is a challenge started by Alex Kallaway in which you have to code daily for at least an hour a day for the next 100 days.
My Journey
I started my journey by learning HTML and CSS on FreeCodeCamp. At the end of the first course, I made 5 Responsive Web Designs needed to get the certificate and I got it.
Then I started learning JavaScript on the same platform but I just couldn't get the gist of JavaScript, especially ES6. It drove me nuts so I stopped and started a Web Developer Bootcamp by Colt Steele on Udemy. He taught JavaScript with DOM Manipulation which made it fun but it was simple stuff and ES6 was not covered and neither the complex stuff like Array methods, fetch API, promises etc.
So I bought another course: The Modern JavaScript Bootcamp by Andrew Mead and I gotta say, this is the best investment I have ever made in my life! During the course, there are numerous challenges that you have to do by yourself and it pushes you to write your own code.
I learned a lot and for the first time, I was totally into JavaScript. When the course ended, Andrew suggested that the students make a Recipe App. I thought it's going to be a piece of cake. But boy was I wrong! It took me FIVE days!
The work begins!
First I worked on the HTML and CSS part of the app, but I wasn't so interested in the design and I just wanted to move on to the JavaScript part. Worked on the logic for the next 3 days. It took me this long because I'm relatively new to this stuff. On the 5th day, I debugged my app and uploaded it. Now I know, it doesn't look anything like an app with a perfect design and logic but still for me, a JS and CSS CodeNewbie, I deserve a pat on the back for building something.
I am going to keep building trivial projects like this one to hone my skills and get a grip on knowledge. Check out My Recipe App
Why am I telling you this?
Because I want to give this advice to all the Code Newbies and beginners out there to get out of the loop of endless tutorials and build stuff of your own. You will get stuck frequently, it's part of the process. Google it until you find the solution. This will improve your problem-solving skills and build your confidence and once you complete something decent, it will boost your morale and motivate you.
Conclusion
In the end, I will say that no matter how many tutorials you watch, the real learning starts when you open an IDE on your own, create a new file, and start writing code. You will learn all those little things that aren't and can't be covered in tutorials. Good luck and happy coding!
Latest comments (5)
When it comes to learning new stuff, I always refer to this:
It's perfectly correct!
If you give a thought of it, YouTube dev channels, Udemy course creators and other devs in online education field are the ultimate winners:
+ constant need to always stay up to date with modern cutting edge
+ requirement to understand everything to the bone (by practicing) in order to teach others
+ pay is exponential in the long term by the channel growth and the total count of videos/courses
+ opportunity for extra revenue from 3rd-party advertisements, personal merchandise, etc
+ creation and promotion of personal portfolio to get other well-paid side-projects along the road
+ ability to work remotely, in your own pace/schedule, managing time based on family and personal needs
+ and most importantly, due to the massive amount of new devs coming into the field, the count of people looking for free knowledge is skyrocketing, meaning the online web education business is booming...
*Makes sense many of them have turned down multiple full-time offers from companies like Google.
Indeed.
I agree with the conclusion. As a beginner it also inspired me to do more effort and start writing code