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My story of learning to code to build a side project.

25 points by timae 15y ago

Forrest7778 15y ago
Very compelling story, I appreciate the amount of detail you went into to explain your adventure.
MarlonPro 15y ago
Inspiring! I am also trying to learn Ruby on Rails. Like you, I also have an itch for startup. Learning Ruby on Rails is on my top list for 2012!
Smcavinney 15y ago
Great insight. I love the "outsiders" view on programming you take. Finding out that the learning curve isn't that great is encouraging.
Gobitron 15y ago
Great story. Can you add some detail on how much time you've dedicated to learning on a daily/weekly basis and how it fits into your family and work life?
- timae 15y ago
  Thanks. Sure: My typical schedule on weekdays is getting home at 7, then spending time with the family until the kids go to bed b/t 8:30-9. Then from 9-12 or 1 I tried to spend as much time as possible on building the app. In my approach the "learning" and "building" were intertwined. I didn't make up much ground on the weekends, as I kept that to family time. How consistent I was from that 9-12 slot went in waves. For a couple weeks in a row I'd be at it every night, and then I'd have a couple weeks where I wasn't as productive. The summer I went through a productivity lull for some reason.
  - Gobitron 15y ago
    Thanks. I have a somewhat similar story to yours, and I ended up building my first app during the first 6 months after my daughter was born. I'm trying again now (slightly different approach), but I actually am finding it more difficult now that she is older. I hope you keep it going and good luck with it!
mikeleeorg 15y ago
Great story. Great blog post too. And it looks like a great tool. You just earned another potential user :) Good luck and keep up the great work!
bomatson 15y ago
Thanks for sharing How much time have you spent doing tutorials / projects vs. pair programming? 50/50?
- timae 15y ago
  I didn't really code through any tutorials. I used them to learn and followed them but adapted the steps to my own project to the extent possible. No pair programming, but that sounds like that would be a huge help.
saltcod 15y ago
Did you know HTML/CSS/Javascript before, or was all that new too?
- timae 15y ago
  Yes, I did know HTML/CSS. Not so much JavaScript, but I still don't do any of that by hand (not condoning, that's just my current experience level). The pre-existing skills did help a bit, but HTML/CSS are not that hard to pick up. Add maybe a month to get up to speed with there. Twitter bootstrap is a good help in that area.
nazar 15y ago
Thank you for sharing! I always like to read this kind of stories. For me, I started coding in a silly way. First wave of motivation was when I tried to impress my current girlfriend, her sister needed a website and I said I can code it for her. Right after saying that I jumped into YouTube and searched for "How to create a website". Then somehow I forget about coding when I got my internship at one company, which required me to visit hospitals and some other boring stuff. I didnt want to do it, but it was a requirement internship at university. My roommate was a great programmer so I requested a transfer to software department counting on my friend and knowing only a little bit of HTML/CSS. Suddenly, even a single week didn't pass and my friend had to leave, so I was kinda forced to learn ASP.NET and other stuff. After that terrible time of continues googling, stackoverflow, youtubing I became a programmer for a living :)

25 points by timae 15y ago

Very compelling story, I appreciate the amount of detail you went into to explain your adventure.

Inspiring! I am also trying to learn Ruby on Rails. Like you, I also have an itch for startup. Learning Ruby on Rails is on my top list for 2012!

Smcavinney 15y ago

Great insight. I love the "outsiders" view on programming you take. Finding out that the learning curve isn't that great is encouraging.

Gobitron 15y ago

Great story. Can you add some detail on how much time you've dedicated to learning on a daily/weekly basis and how it fits into your family and work life?

timae 15y ago
Thanks. Sure: My typical schedule on weekdays is getting home at 7, then spending time with the family until the kids go to bed b/t 8:30-9. Then from 9-12 or 1 I tried to spend as much time as possible on building the app. In my approach the "learning" and "building" were intertwined. I didn't make up much ground on the weekends, as I kept that to family time. How consistent I was from that 9-12 slot went in waves. For a couple weeks in a row I'd be at it every night, and then I'd have a couple weeks where I wasn't as productive. The summer I went through a productivity lull for some reason.
- Gobitron 15y ago
  Thanks. I have a somewhat similar story to yours, and I ended up building my first app during the first 6 months after my daughter was born. I'm trying again now (slightly different approach), but I actually am finding it more difficult now that she is older. I hope you keep it going and good luck with it!

mikeleeorg 15y ago

Great story. Great blog post too. And it looks like a great tool. You just earned another potential user :) Good luck and keep up the great work!

bomatson 15y ago

Thanks for sharing How much time have you spent doing tutorials / projects vs. pair programming? 50/50?

timae 15y ago
I didn't really code through any tutorials. I used them to learn and followed them but adapted the steps to my own project to the extent possible. No pair programming, but that sounds like that would be a huge help.

saltcod 15y ago

Did you know HTML/CSS/Javascript before, or was all that new too?

timae 15y ago
Yes, I did know HTML/CSS. Not so much JavaScript, but I still don't do any of that by hand (not condoning, that's just my current experience level). The pre-existing skills did help a bit, but HTML/CSS are not that hard to pick up. Add maybe a month to get up to speed with there. Twitter bootstrap is a good help in that area.

nazar 15y ago

Thank you for sharing! I always like to read this kind of stories. For me, I started coding in a silly way. First wave of motivation was when I tried to impress my current girlfriend, her sister needed a website and I said I can code it for her. Right after saying that I jumped into YouTube and searched for "How to create a website". Then somehow I forget about coding when I got my internship at one company, which required me to visit hospitals and some other boring stuff. I didnt want to do it, but it was a requirement internship at university. My roommate was a great programmer so I requested a transfer to software department counting on my friend and knowing only a little bit of HTML/CSS. Suddenly, even a single week didn't pass and my friend had to leave, so I was kinda forced to learn ASP.NET and other stuff. After that terrible time of continues googling, stackoverflow, youtubing I became a programmer for a living :)