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When I started teaching myself I never thought it would take me so long. I made two mistakes: I didn't have direction (which you solved by asking a question) an

When I started teaching myself I never thought it would take me so long. I made two mistakes: I didn't have direction (which you solved by asking a question) and I didn't build stuff. From this point forward you ought to pick one thing and build stuff. When I say pick one thing, I mean one learning resource at a time. Whether it is "automate the boring stuff" (which is a great resource I haven't read) or one of the resources that I'm linking to (they are different resources that have been suggested on HN in the past), or a suggestion from another comment. Pick one and work on it. It's all about making a decision and sticking to it until you have enough information to make a better decision. Find someone you can talk with about this stuff. It can get lonely if you don't know anyone who knows about this stuff. I'm available and would even work on some of the material or courses with you, especially the last two links. As another user mentioned somewhere below, you will feel like bashing your head against the wall. He/she wasn't kidding. Once you get past that feeling, which will take a very, very long time, you will have overcome the hardest hurdle. https://github.com/MichielDerhaeg/build-linux/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/MichielDerhaeg/build-linux/blob/master/RE... http://exercism.io/ http://exercism.io/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html https://github.com/ossu/computer-science/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/ossu/computer-science/blob/master/README.... Edit: for anyone else in OP's shoes, feel free to contact me as well.

B4TMAN 9y ago
How do you start a new/big project? Lets say I want to read a codebase on github which is written in js. How doI go through it, given that I don’t know much js yet?
Teichopsia 9y ago
For B4tman. I don't quite understand why you got down-voted, besides maybe because your question has two opposing thoughts, which may or may not be self evident to your self. Let's break your sentence down. "How do you start a new/big project? Lets say I want to read a codebase on github which is written in js. How doI go through it, given that I don’t know much js yet?" The first part about how to start a new big project has nothing to do with reading a codebase. And the part not knowing much js yet means you shouldn't be starting a big project. You could, if you wanted to. Heck, I've done it but nothing good has come out of it besides learning that, baby steps are sane steps. So, we have two questions. 1- How to start a big project? (whatever big may mean to you). 2- How to read a codebase. Reading a codebase will help you understand project structure. It will also help you, that is, if you find a line of code you don't understand, break it down, research what it does and continue reading, improve your coding abilities. In short, how everything ties together. That practice will help you understand how to start a new project. But the first step you ought to take is, if you are going to go down this road, is to learn how to ask questions: https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

B4TMAN 9y ago

How do you start a new/big project? Lets say I want to read a codebase on github which is written in js. How doI go through it, given that I don’t know much js yet?

Teichopsia 9y ago

For B4tman. I don't quite understand why you got down-voted, besides maybe because your question has two opposing thoughts, which may or may not be self evident to your self. Let's break your sentence down. "How do you start a new/big project? Lets say I want to read a codebase on github which is written in js. How doI go through it, given that I don’t know much js yet?" The first part about how to start a new big project has nothing to do with reading a codebase. And the part not knowing much js yet means you shouldn't be starting a big project. You could, if you wanted to. Heck, I've done it but nothing good has come out of it besides learning that, baby steps are sane steps. So, we have two questions. 1- How to start a big project? (whatever big may mean to you). 2- How to read a codebase. Reading a codebase will help you understand project structure. It will also help you, that is, if you find a line of code you don't understand, break it down, research what it does and continue reading, improve your coding abilities. In short, how everything ties together. That practice will help you understand how to start a new project. But the first step you ought to take is, if you are going to go down this road, is to learn how to ask questions: https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html