These days I spend quite a time watching Youtube videos about different topics related to online marketing, business, passive income, etc. I come across a few of them presenting useful online tools and ways of building passive income for example with using APIs and more. I know nothing is black and white and I do not believe in overnight success. What I believe in is persistent and consistent work. I realized that having such a skill where you could build tools, apps, or whatever is useful digitally (as digital assets) could be a great thing to do and could have a tremendous impact on an improvement of others’ lives but also on my life. So I decided to start to learn to code at the beginning of November. I would like to share the journey and in this article, I will provide you with 4 things that I learned after a couple of weeks of learning to code.
It goes easier when you know your why
Every time you do something it is good that you know the why. For a long time, I was looking for my why connected to coding. One day it just came to my mind, while working on my side project – the academy of ukulele chords. (so far it is available only in Slovak language but the plan is to spread a word also in English in future) I was preparing some scripts in Python because I need to convert a PDF of ukulele chords into a .jpg file and then also cut it in almost the same pieces for particular chords. I am a total beginner in Python but with some googling, I come with some solutions. On the first attempt, my scripts did not work as expected. I was feeling miserable because it took me some time to come with some solutions. So I grabbed my bicycle and after a couple of hours cycling, I realized the mistake – I had not told the computer all the necessary steps. It clicked in my head. This is the way of communication. I need to tell the computer all the necessary steps in the language he understands in order to achieve the result. Once you forget one of the steps then it will not happen. I come with my why: I do it because it is a way of communication between humans and computers. It could save a lot of time, bring a lot of freedom and solve important problems.
Start with some tutorials and then – practise, practise, practise
I think that these days there is plenty of sources that could be used in order to learn new skills. During my first weeks, I decided to surround myself with coding in a lot of activities I do online. I realized that I spend some time of the day reading different articles, watching videos, or scrolling on social media – to make the story short consuming online content is part of my daily routine. So I got an idea that probably it would be great to surround my sources of this with content that is related to coding. I found a couple of great Instagram profiles, Youtube videos, and then also websites that are pretty useful as they share the necessary information that helps to learn. I made a list of a couple of them in the 4th point of this article. Of course, reading and consuming this content is great but nothing will improve without practicing. Practicing theoretical knowledge is giving me the AHA moments when I digest and experience the theory in a practical way. So I think it is always good to surround yourself with content that improves your knowledge but even better is to practice it a lot to understand it.
Think before act – always start with an analysis of design and structure
From the beginning, I was very excited about jumping right into creating. I think it is good to be excited about implementing the theory into practice, but I realized it is also good to think before acting. Why? Because it is possible to prevent a lot of mistakes and corrections when there is a logic and understanding of possible outcomes before it is done. Of course, there is still a probability that there still will be some. So now before I jump into the problem I think and plan ahead. I do not have an exact share of time when I plan and when I implement. It is just that planning is important so I do it until it is done and then move to the realization of the project.
Tips for great resources that helped me to to find my way
I have to admit that there are a lot of sources that could be used for learning HTML and CSS I will mention a couple of them so maybe you can use them to your advantage.
- w3schools – https://www.w3schools.com/
- freeCodeCamp – https://www.freecodecamp.org/
- MDN Web Docs – https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML
- Codeacademy – https://www.codecademy.com/
- There are also some paid courses on Udemy, but for HTML/CSS I do not have one to reccomend as I was not part of any
What I also did was that I searched for HTML and CSS on Instagram and add a couple of profiles that share interesting content. For particular problems that I was solving during the creation of some mini projects within for example the freeCodeCamp certification, I also search Youtube videos for that particular problems.
Good luck with your start!
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