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I was by no means arguing one couldn't learn all of these things on one's own. I, too, am a self-taught programmer, and in fact, it makes it even harder for me

I was by no means arguing one couldn't learn all of these things on one's own. I, too, am a self-taught programmer, and in fact, it makes it even harder for me to make an assessment of the claim without comparing to myself. All of the information is on the web, you're right. But just from a practical standpoint, it takes time to even learn about what you need to search for. One great piece of wisdom is that as you become more proficient in an area, you learn (1) what you need to learn, and (2) what you don't know. Jennifer seemed to not have any apparent issue figuring out what was needed, and seemed to be able to answer all the questions she needed answering with little or no delay. I don't have difficulty believing that one can learn all of those things on one's own. I do have difficulty believing that for someone with little to no technical background, all of those things could be achieved at the rate they were achieved and in the timespan they were achieved. The reason I have an issue believing it was exemplified by the experiences I've had. My point was two-fold: firstly that I think doubt is warranted, and secondly that up and coming programmers should not be discouraged if they can't match the same throughput and output as Jennifer seems to show.

Raphmedia 13y ago
That's the thing. The info is out there. Hell, especially around new year, there are a lot of articles that sounds like "10 things to learn before 2013", "talks to help you be a better programmer in 2013", etc. It's not very hard to google "what should I learn to be a web developer?" or to simply take a look at the name of the courses on code academy. As for your other point, I completely agree. One should not feel down because they were only to complete half of a side project in a month. Hell, that's more than what I manage to fit in my schedule!
yawaramin 13y ago
Look, you are making the assumption that she went into the whole 180-day project with absolutely no idea about web technology. Given what she says, I think that's a wrong assumption. From the post: 'When I set out on this project, I knew I wanted to learn to code dynamic interactive websites, but I also knew next to nothing about coding. Rather than try to tackle the enormous task of building a complex, fully functional social network, I took a small first step. I pieced together a few bits of html and CSS to make the website for day 1, the homepage for the project.' So if you look at the first sentence--she clearly knew something--some terminology, some idea of the technology and what it could do. IMO, most programming (heck, most tech stuff) is just _knowing_ that something's possible. After that, you just need to look up how to do it. There are kids out there who pick up this stuff easy as breathing. I think she did the same thing, just on a slower trajectory.

Raphmedia 13y ago

That's the thing. The info is out there. Hell, especially around new year, there are a lot of articles that sounds like "10 things to learn before 2013", "talks to help you be a better programmer in 2013", etc. It's not very hard to google "what should I learn to be a web developer?" or to simply take a look at the name of the courses on code academy. As for your other point, I completely agree. One should not feel down because they were only to complete half of a side project in a month. Hell, that's more than what I manage to fit in my schedule!

yawaramin 13y ago

Look, you are making the assumption that she went into the whole 180-day project with absolutely no idea about web technology. Given what she says, I think that's a wrong assumption. From the post: 'When I set out on this project, I knew I wanted to learn to code dynamic interactive websites, but I also knew next to nothing about coding. Rather than try to tackle the enormous task of building a complex, fully functional social network, I took a small first step. I pieced together a few bits of html and CSS to make the website for day 1, the homepage for the project.' So if you look at the first sentence--she clearly knew something--some terminology, some idea of the technology and what it could do. IMO, most programming (heck, most tech stuff) is just _knowing_ that something's possible. After that, you just need to look up how to do it. There are kids out there who pick up this stuff easy as breathing. I think she did the same thing, just on a slower trajectory.