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As someone still in school, this type of article -- though inspiring-- kind of scares me, to be honest. I don't think I could do any one of the things mentioned

by poidos 7y ago

As someone still in school, this type of article -- though inspiring-- kind of scares me, to be honest. I don't think I could do any one of the things mentioned in this article.

mLuby 7y ago
Try deploying a simple server (eg a dog API) on Heroku. Then back it with a database. Then add a web or mobile app. Then do it on AWS.
wil421 7y ago
From a mid-level dev, you’ll learn and I doubt you’ll need to know everything in this article and understand it for your first job. Do you understand what the web, api, and DB servers are doing? If your interested in Python and want to start small I can recommend Flask. Flask is smaller and could be more user friendly than Django. Here’s a great tutorial. You’ll build a blog with Bootstrap, Python, Flask and SQLAlchemy.[1] [1]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTs4UjLw5MM6OjgkjFeUxCYH https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTs4UjLw5MM6...
- poidos 7y ago
  Thank you for the Flask tutorial. I tried getting into it but was having some trouble; the tutorial looks great!
- welder 7y ago
  Flask is easy, but it's actually better suited to seasoned programmers. Django's hand holding actually makes it a better framework for beginners. https://wakatime.com/blog/14-pirates-use-flask-the-navy-uses-django https://wakatime.com/blog/14-pirates-use-flask-the-navy-uses...
  - wil421 7y ago
    Thanks Alan(?). I haven’t gone too far with Django. I can see what you’re saying about being seasoned. Flask clicked for me quickly but everything just made sense, ORM, Jinja, modules etc.
wenbin 7y ago
Hello poidos, (I'm the author of this blog post) I couldn't do all these things when I was in school :) I worked in companies for a few years and learned some engineering practices. Then I had basic skills to prototype my own side projects. Then after working on many silly side projects, I started Listen Notes. And initially, Listen Notes was running on 3 tiny DigitalOcean servers ($5/month each?). I logged in each server to git pull to "deploy to production". Then I added things little by little, day by day. It's a process. The key is to get started. People say that showing up is 80% (or whatever percentage) of success. I think this is very true. Just get started and you'll figure out things along the way.
- mypalmike 7y ago
  Thanks for the info. It's an interesting set of tools today, but it's helpful to hear that it has evolved to that point in terms of automation and infrastructure. The first version of a web service can be as simple as flask app which you run in a screen session somewhere. Better to start somewhere than get overwhelmed and never do the thing at all.
- numbers 7y ago
  Exactly what I'd like to tell younger devs and students. You build smaller projects on the side for a bit to familiarize yourself with things until you're ready to start something or something comes along by way of the side projects!
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- poidos 7y ago
  I appreciate the response!! It is wonderful to hear about the evolution of your process, thank you :)
ashelmire 7y ago
As a senior dev: it will take years of experience and constant learning to get to this point, but it is attainable. You don't have to be a master of each part of the stack and each tech within it - you just need to be able to do enough, and solve the problems you face. You can build a professional SaaS product with a simpler stack as well. You take a project like this one step at a time. Some bits of it are relatively easy - setting up a few postgres servers doesn't take much knowledge. ElasticSearch is a little more obscure, but for the most part, things like this are running a few commands, and setting up a few config files with the help of docs and google. Same for Redis, nginx... etc. Which isn't to diminish devops - you can dive deep into each of these configurations and develop pretty complex setups, but by the time you actually need to you hope to be making enough money to pay someone else to do it. You won't get everything perfect all the time. You'll have to revisit parts of the stack and tweak them. But you can take it a day at a time and do what you need to do.

by poidos 7y ago

As someone still in school, this type of article -- though inspiring-- kind of scares me, to be honest. I don't think I could do any one of the things mentioned in this article.

mLuby 7y ago

Try deploying a simple server (eg a dog API) on Heroku. Then back it with a database. Then add a web or mobile app. Then do it on AWS.

wil421 7y ago

From a mid-level dev, you’ll learn and I doubt you’ll need to know everything in this article and understand it for your first job. Do you understand what the web, api, and DB servers are doing? If your interested in Python and want to start small I can recommend Flask. Flask is smaller and could be more user friendly than Django. Here’s a great tutorial. You’ll build a blog with Bootstrap, Python, Flask and SQLAlchemy.[1] [1]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTs4UjLw5MM6OjgkjFeUxCYH https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTs4UjLw5MM6...

poidos 7y ago
Thank you for the Flask tutorial. I tried getting into it but was having some trouble; the tutorial looks great!
welder 7y ago
Flask is easy, but it's actually better suited to seasoned programmers. Django's hand holding actually makes it a better framework for beginners. https://wakatime.com/blog/14-pirates-use-flask-the-navy-uses-django https://wakatime.com/blog/14-pirates-use-flask-the-navy-uses...
- wil421 7y ago
  Thanks Alan(?). I haven’t gone too far with Django. I can see what you’re saying about being seasoned. Flask clicked for me quickly but everything just made sense, ORM, Jinja, modules etc.

wenbin 7y ago

Hello poidos, (I'm the author of this blog post) I couldn't do all these things when I was in school :) I worked in companies for a few years and learned some engineering practices. Then I had basic skills to prototype my own side projects. Then after working on many silly side projects, I started Listen Notes. And initially, Listen Notes was running on 3 tiny DigitalOcean servers ($5/month each?). I logged in each server to git pull to "deploy to production". Then I added things little by little, day by day. It's a process. The key is to get started. People say that showing up is 80% (or whatever percentage) of success. I think this is very true. Just get started and you'll figure out things along the way.

mypalmike 7y ago
Thanks for the info. It's an interesting set of tools today, but it's helpful to hear that it has evolved to that point in terms of automation and infrastructure. The first version of a web service can be as simple as flask app which you run in a screen session somewhere. Better to start somewhere than get overwhelmed and never do the thing at all.
numbers 7y ago
Exactly what I'd like to tell younger devs and students. You build smaller projects on the side for a bit to familiarize yourself with things until you're ready to start something or something comes along by way of the side projects!
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
poidos 7y ago
I appreciate the response!! It is wonderful to hear about the evolution of your process, thank you :)

ashelmire 7y ago

As a senior dev: it will take years of experience and constant learning to get to this point, but it is attainable. You don't have to be a master of each part of the stack and each tech within it - you just need to be able to do enough, and solve the problems you face. You can build a professional SaaS product with a simpler stack as well. You take a project like this one step at a time. Some bits of it are relatively easy - setting up a few postgres servers doesn't take much knowledge. ElasticSearch is a little more obscure, but for the most part, things like this are running a few commands, and setting up a few config files with the help of docs and google. Same for Redis, nginx... etc. Which isn't to diminish devops - you can dive deep into each of these configurations and develop pretty complex setups, but by the time you actually need to you hope to be making enough money to pay someone else to do it. You won't get everything perfect all the time. You'll have to revisit parts of the stack and tweak them. But you can take it a day at a time and do what you need to do.