Alright last political joke I promise.
I've been gone for awhile. Lots of things happened. Got a 9-5 job. Working as a support person and first job in a software company.
Lots of milestones. Or kilometers. Whatever rounds better.
Since getting the new job I haven't coded as much. I would say my main excuse when I started was exhaustion from solving highly technical problems all day and communicating to humans about those problems. Later on it was just kind of laziness. Hey I'll admit it.
I am back though. Obviously. And I've been coding again for weeks, every day in a row.
How do I find the time you ask? What a great question lonely internet wanderer let me answer that.
The littlest smallest moves I can make. I started off with at least five minutes. Some days I don't even do a lot of coding but I'm just there, trying to solve a problem. And because of that I've somehow made more time. Five minutes. Just saying.
Life lessons and subconcious self help messages aside, this is probably the best strategy I've to work on my projects in awhile. It's easy to get carried away with a project, dream about what it looks like but when you're first beginning, some of these projects need to fail. And honestly, I started writing this blog post without an absolute plan of where I was going with it. Best laid plans of mice and men, so on and so forth.
I'm at it again. I've maid that painfully, dreadfully, incessently clear by this point. But I wanted to do something special with this blog post.
Yeah you. You didn't do anything bad. This is the call out. If you're working on learning code or learning whatever. Hit me up and tell me about it. What's that thing you're working on? Or don't but go work on it (After reading this whole blog post). And because I called you out I'll tell you what I'm working on, what I'm working towards, and what the whole point of this place you're at/in/on the internet.
I'm changing how I think about coding and learning it. It's something I will forever be learning. I used to apply to jobs and be all like:
_I am a self taught python programmer who specializes in web browser automation, data collection and analysis_
Wow. I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring.
I don't really know what this is anymore to be honest. In my mind I've been "trying to learn how to program" for a long time and it still kind of feels like I'm new to it the more and more I am around it. And I know that I am not at yet a level where I'll be able to feel a drive until it's something very complex and super interesting. This isn't a silent imposter syndrome call for help but rather, just letting go of that there's a map to all of this.
So what's the easiest way to alter your thinking?
See what other humans are saying about it. Seriously. I was up until 5 am last night talking about coding on discord with complete strangers. And coding. And answering and asking questions. And probably looking like a complete idiot. But my eyes have been opened.
there are other people out there struggling with the same exact thing you're trying to do and they want to talk about it as much as you do
(we're getting to the actual point here i promise)
Someone super duper insightful said to me, programming is just one language.
I've been so focused on one language, one tool, one way of doing a bunch of different things. That's incredibly one dimensional. But cheers to my ignorance, I believed learning programming meant to become a master of one first.
It's not. It really isn't. And so (finally) I am committing this year to spend (a lot) more time (like a lot a lot) on (seriously) JavaScript.
The way: freecodecamp.org (FCC). They have certifications, its an amazing platform, and the best part is that it's free. I am a little embarassed to admit (but will) how long I've slept on this.
The why: If you're looking at this, you're in a browser. Most of everything you do is in a browser. JavaScript is judge, jury, and executioner in the browser. And tools that I can build with both Python and JavaScript.
The how: I have a premium membership to dataquest but I tend to have time in the evening and FCC's missions are so super duper small, nicely complimenting my generous and gracious tip earlier.
The where: my laptop. in my room. maybe at this coffee shop. will need internet.
The what: umm. JavaScript....(i know these questions are important to goals. Right? shrugs)
If I think about it I'll daze out for an hour and forget to finish this post.
You probably noticed (or maybe you didn't because of how clearly I explain things) that I kind of don't want to say that I'm learning anymore.
If you didn't notice, I don't want to say that I'm learning how to program anymore.
Okay now that we're all on the same page.
This is like me telling myself that I don't know how to program. But I do. So I want the learning to be implied. Implicit. Implicated.
fun word stem.
how: another smart person once said, "ritualize it". meaning every morning i wake up, make breakfast and coffee and sit down immediately in front of my laptop and log onto dataquest and start exactly where I left off the day before.
why: Data analysis and science is work. For some people it's work that pays. I tend to glamourize projects in my mind, thinking "I'll do this and this and this". Then I get to a certain point, say "good enough" and don't work on something else for awhile because I make myself I have "learned it" but when it comes to the real deal, the day in and day out of data munging and whatever the all-star data people call it nowadays, work with data, see data, be with data, dance with...this is getting away from me but they are exposed to it everyday so skilling up for someone in a position is easier than self-teaching by attempting to make beautiful, amazing, hiring-worthy projects that stand out. Those look good yes. But they're scary and how many bad projects will I have before I have a good project?
I honestly don't know, everytime I make something I think it's the best and way better than the last thing.
So I want to close that gap, I want to make more bad things and by bad things I mean I 100% don't do this for a living and I am fully allowed to now make terrible blunders.
Freedom. where: laptop. what: dataquest and kaggle.
Wow you thought you'd never make it huh? This one may catch you off guard.
Workout everyday.
Even if it's a walk around the apartment complex block. The intention has to be that I need activity. Because you sit most of the time when you code unless you have one of those dope vampire desks that hang from the ceiling, increasing blood flow to your brain for maximum brain processing power.
That's not real don't do that.
Working out can be super boring. Especially when all you can think during is "oh wow this hurts and I'm super bored".
The worst workouts are the five minute workouts. But they're done in five minutes
And how does this help me code? I don't know, there's so much research on this just go read something else, my coffee fuel is running out.
For me, my protein shake is like, soooooooooooooo good.
That's it.
jk. settle down.
And it's a complete decompress. I listen to some good music and burn off mental steam. We all get it. Personally I get kind of zen when I'm in the pain cave (if you're not familiar with the phrase it's something you know when you see it, watch people finish a running race for example).
Hey look, I've justified my own blog/website in just one post!
Maybe you noticed something eles.
Hey mctopherganesh, why didn't you ever put who in any of those questions you asked yourself
Wow. You caught me there. So observant you.
Here's why. Cuz it's on me. And it's on you. And these awesome people on the python discord general channel (slightly obsessed).
So thanks for visiting, come back some time. It makes my Google Analytics graphs look waaayyy cooler.