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How to teach yourself to code in one month
- Swizec 15y agoThis looks like a good way to learn about coding in a month - a very important skill when you want to work with developers. But I'm doubtful it would provide any real proficiency ... Anyone who's learned to code in a month able to say otherwise?
- strmpnk 15y agoI agree on the general notion is coding involves a lot more than meets the eye. Given that, it's probably impossible to claim that coding is learnable in anything less than years of work. Even then, we all know that we learned, one way or another, by doing. This course is design to get people writing actual code and accelerating what can be a slow learning experience. I have no doubt that those students will be coding in a month. Just like learning to ride a bike doesn't mean BMX competitions, it's still a step that could lead people to anything they want to make of it. I'd expect plenty of options for next steps, including learning to do ticks on a BMX style bike. The key is that not all of these next steps are serious endeavors. Some people learn just be be enlightened. I do hope it inspires students to take steps to learn more. We'll see how it goes and we'll also see what students think after taking the course.
- runjake 15y agoI banged out a YouTube clone with user registration and voting for an intranet in less than a month after knowing nothing about Rails using the exact methods the author is talking about. Sure it was no showcase example of Rails development but it works and people love it (it's been a few year now and to be honest, I've only made minor changes since). Edit: I did have years of programming experience beforehand, but not in a language like Ruby or a framework like Rails. It was at times, mind-bending. I think the key difficulty was combating presumptions.
- Swizec 15y agoYou mention not knowing Ruby before. But did you already know how to code? When you can already code, picking up a new set of tools is a whole different beast to learning how to code from scratch.
- prophetjohn 15y agoOkay, learning Rails with years of programming experience under your belt is in no way comparable to learning how to program (hate "code" as a verb) from scratch. Even if all you ever did was write device drivers in MIPS assembly, you're at a huge advantage over someone who has to wrap their head around what the heck a while loop or an assignment statement is.
- jarrett 15y agoI don't think this question has an answer, because there is no way to precisely define "knowing how to code." Here are several reasonable definitions: 1 You know how to code if you can get a simple application to run. (No requirements as to maintainability, performance, security, etc.) 2. You know how to code if you can pick the right tools for the job, foresee and avoid future maintenance problems, avoid introducing well-known security holes, and achieve an appropriate balance between performance, cost, and programming effort. 3. You know how to code if you understand your specialty inside and out, to the point where you could write a book, teach advanced classes, testify as an expert in court, and maintain a leading blog about your specialty. #1 can probably be attained in a month. #2 will take most people several years of sustained effort. Many programmers don't reach #3, and those who do have usually been in the game for many years and have held multiple programming jobs. So what does it mean to learn to code? What's a good enough level of expertise to code for you own business?
- SatvikBeri 15y agoIt takes very little coding knowledge to be able to provide massive value. I learned to program SAS and get a job in about 2 weeks. I had a very strong Math background, but next to no programming background. 6 months later, I'd automated my job, my department's jobs, and another department's jobs. You can argue that this doesn't count as real coding-SAS is certainly much easier than Ruby. But the point is that it was quite possible to learn enough to provide millions of dollars of business value in a couple of weeks.
- eurohacker 15y agohow did you learn SAS programming - the same way as regular programming ?
- ballstothewalls 15y agoDid this result in your employer letting people go?
- SatvikBeri 15y ago
- melling 15y agoAnyone have anything for people who can code but can't design? I'd like to learn how to use Photoshop, CSS, and generally get my colors to match.
- subpixel 15y agoHere's a great shortlist: http://alexn.org/blog/2011/11/25/4-books-for-learning-to-design-the-hard-way.html http://alexn.org/blog/2011/11/25/4-books-for-learning-to-des... And CSS tricks will prove very useful (mine the backlog!): http://css-tricks.com/ http://css-tricks.com/ If you can code, then you're way ahead when it comes to translating visuals into functional elements on a screen, in my opinion. Rock!
- freshfey 15y agoCheck out David Kadavy's "Design for Hackers", this is probably what you're looking for. http://tinyurl.com/8886wpy http://tinyurl.com/8886wpy (affiliate link)
- lucisferre 15y agoYou what I'd like to see more than "learn to code" sites/posts, is "learn to design" ones. I know there have been a couple but I think more of us here know how to code than do design well.
- wallflower 15y agoThe real issue is not learning to code, it is learning to problem solve. That is the part that is hard. I recently overheard a guy on the train talk about why he dropped CompSci as a major to his friend. He talked about the times where he would leave out a semicolon and the program would crash. And it would take hours for him to find the culprit. Leaving out the efficiency of his debugging, what I listened to more was the tone of his explanation. It was like a diatribe. His attitude was literally that any career where you have to worry about little things like semicolons was not the type of career for him. I suspect he had gone into the CompSci program because of the material benefits. And left once he discovered the devil is in the details. Programming is like weaving more than writing. I remember that he said he had switched majors to Business and loved it. Basically, he said CompSci was torture. Because he did not revel, like many of us do, in the sometimes long and backtracking path that we go through to write code. To make something, to weave lines of code into something tangible.
- sakai 15y agoI don' think that example proves your point: perhaps he loved problem solving / was an excellent problem solver and pursued CompSci for that reason, only to drop it because he disliked the formalism required by programming (or math, for example). While coding is a formal style of problem solving, I think the sentiment that those who can't code can't problem solve / dislike problem solving is ill-founded and misguided.
- gerggerg 15y agoAnd learning to work with other people. And learning to read documentation. And learning to plan. And learning when to admit other people should solve the problem.
- MartinCron 15y agolearning when to admit other people should solve the problem Sounds like the guy made the right decision, then.
- TomatoTomato 15y agoSo I've gone through all of the above and now what's the next step? What does month two entail?
- runjake 15y agoI use this exact approach and have also banged out not-entirely horrible code in >=1 month. I did this when I learned Rails. I started with a couple basic 15 minute guides and then hammered myself from all directions incrementally switching between stuff like Hartl's guide, PeepCode, Railscast, etc. I do find that learning from diverse sources really accelerates the learning process for me. It also breaks up the monotony of pounding through exercises in a single book.
- maeon3 15y agoYou can teach yourself to be a doctor in one month, that I can understand, but a coder in one month? Impossible.
- cosmez 15y agoi always recommend this article instead: http://norvig.com/21-days.html http://norvig.com/21-days.html
- timecircuits 15y agoOh, man. I spent all this time reading about algorithms, mathematics, and Backus-Naur form when all I needed to do was watch Railscasts! I guess I'm never getting that time back.
- astrofinch 15y agoDon't forget to take notes in the form of a cheat sheet (or find a cheat sheet someone has already made). It's so easy to remember what was done in a tutorial without remembering how it was done in terms of keywords, etc.
- TylerBrock 15y agoI did a lot of the same things as Mattan, some of them sitting right next to him, in order to get up to speed on Rails enough to build a web app. It was not easy. I had about 6 weeks to learn Ruby, Rails, MongoDB, and mongoid to build a web scale app and I can definitely say that the advice he gives is invaluable. Do every single tutorial you can find. Eventually the information sinks in. Congratulations Mattan. You worked hard while so many founders out there just hire people to build their dreams for them. You are an example of what is right in this industry, true entrepreneurialism.
- kmfrk 15y agoThe two best things that let me learn Django (and some more-than-basic Python) were The Django Book and IRC. IRC is a really, really, really good resource to learn something technical, and it is better in that it provides real-time help. It is the closest you can probably get to having someone guide you live short of having a friend to help you.
- ithought 15y agoI'm gonna try this. Coding to me is mystifying even though I started in grade school. Later I met a hardware engineer/hacker when I was 18 and I decided then to focus on the business side even though I had made a few applications. He was so good at the math and the art of it that I never wanted to waste time to learn it properly. But I was lazy with it before all that. So I should challenge myself to this.