#dargacode

[dargacode]

"TUTORIAL HELL" is Both Harmful and Imaginary

Day 2862

Every time I go on a programming subreddit or other public forum, I see so many distraught learners in anguish that they can't start "A Real Project", and are "stuck" on tutorials, as state which has now come to be referred to as "Tutorial Hell."

It honestly makes me extremely mad that people have made Tutorial Hell into such a meme that new programmers are now scared of it. It's unnecessary gate-keeping around what counts as A Real Project, and it's harming programming students who could otherwise be happily progressing on their way to mastery if they hadn't been poisoned by this idea.

There are zero useful aspects to the concept, and it only prevents students from learning rather than helping them learn. Every programmer in the world, from you to the creators of Google, has to get their ideas based on SOMETHING:

A problem they want to solve for themselves (or a friend, or a customer).

Some knowledge they already had, applied in a new way

A new skill they've just picked up from another project or lesson

A new feature that was just introduced into some technology they use

There's literally no way to get an idea except to have had some experience that leads you to it.

So starting from a completely empty file, and divining a new project based purely on inspiration is of course a very intimidating task, but luckily we don't ever actually have to do that.

The process of developing projects is actually very natural (even inevitable???) if you transfer your code more gradually from "100% Tutorial" to "100% Project":

Start off by doing the tutorials as written. Make sure that you're actually coding along and checking in your code to a github repo.

Every time you finish a tutorial, think of some tiny change you can make to the code to "make it your own." This can start out as small as just changing some text on the screen, or the colors it's using.

Over time you'll naturally get some more ambitious ideas for how to make the project into something even cooler, and you'll start adding larger things like a new feature with its own functions.

Eventually you'll get enough practice expanding projects and applying ideas that the project is mostly your "custom" code instead of code the tutorial told you to write.

Now maybe you have an idea to make a clone of this project but make it even better.

Now you're making A Real Project, From Scratch, but it doesn't rely on you having some eureeka moment of inspiration.

Here's what those steps could look like in a more specific example, from a common tutorial:

Complete a tutorial on how to fetch data from a weather API.

Think, "how could I do some additional fetching to practice more?"

Decide to fetch some data from a movie API instead.

Think, again, "how could I do some additional fetching to practice more?"

Realize that you could use the skills you've learned to fetch two different movies, and iterate through the casts to see which actors they have in common.

Think, again, "how could I do some additional fetching to practice more?

Realize that you could do something similar by fetching two actors, and see what movies they have in common.

Remember that the meme "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" is related to actors being in the same movies together.

Realize that you could make an app that tracks Kevin Bacon degrees by putting together your movie overlap code and your actor overlap code.

Take the code you've written to modify the tutorial and paste it into a new project, where start turning it into its own app.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/six-degrees-movie-trivia/id328926385 (not my app)

Coding learners, you're going to be ok - you can take it gradually! Try to just focus on programming a lot, and what kinds of things you program will evolve naturally over time. If you want to consciously lead things in the direction of building your own projects from scratch that's great!

But trying so hard to make this transition that it discourages you from coding is hurting you for no good reason. If you stay curious enough and excited enough about programming, over enough time you'll reach this goal without even trying to.

[rockingweevil]

@nisssshhhh @vamosaplaticar @getteness @konekoryuugamine @rehman-coding @tattenkid @drawnbykarmira @inabooknook @geomoon @redsimplyrouge @james25july-blog @bpdactyl @oxalic-alien @aliciafbaybee @reading--through--life-blog @studygeeklife @ever-so-noteworthy @johnbrobinson @brooklyn-hustle @dargacode @programmingsite 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[classycoding]

CAL #3 - I give up coding... kinda... ok not really

08/08/2018

Yeah uh, welcome back to my WEEKLY BLOG

Where’ve you been Classy?

Good question follower who statistically probably is just a porn bot! Well, to put it really bluntly... I just got really lazy and discouraged from learning to code, so I took a break!

An extended

month long

break.

In all seriousness, I was feeling extremely discouraged as I just wasn’t getting anywhere. I felt allover the place and like nothing was helping me actually learn. 

So what are you doing back? 

Well porn bot, to put it bluntly once again, I forced my dad to invest like $12 into me. That’s the TLDR version, but to play it out for you, last week I saw on Udemy that there was a “best seller” Java course on sale for $12. This was last week.

A week later and I’m back on track. I actually feel like I’m learning and I’m happy. It’s only been a week and I’m learning about data types so I’m back at square 1, but better that than square 0.

P.S. Special thanks to @dargacode for the inspiring words and tips, appreciate it.

[vladcpp-blog]

End of the 1st week!

This week was full of learning. I’ve been struggling to keep myself focused on HTML and CSS only this week so I can properly develop the syntax in my head. But, I’ve also put my hands on some Javascript/JQuery. 

As a first impression, this is exactly how I thought it would be: annoyingly easy in the beginning. I ran through all of the tutorials on HTML and CSS and even on most part of the beginning in Javascript(due to my C/C++ experience). In the end, I made a break and started some projects and here is where the hard part comes in. I’ve completed one project using only HTML and CSS, but now, on my second project(in which I have to build a portfolio page) I really have some issues. Nevertheless, I’m not stoping, I seem to like web dev for now so I’m gonna continue, especially when I get to backend and DOM manipulation(which involves actual programming, the thing I’m actually very good at xD).

Things I’ve learned this week:

HTML - basic syntax

CSS - basic syntax

CSS - Bootstrap

JQuery - access elements/basic usage

Javascript - basic syntax, not involving DOM manipulation

Tutorials completed:

Codeacademy - Learn HTML, Make a website

FreeCodeCamp progress: HTML5 and CSS, Responsive Design with Bootstrap, JQuery, Build a Tribute Page - all completed

Code School - Try GIt

SoloLearn - HTML

Goals:

Complete the FreeCodeCamp bootcamp - I really like their style and the fact that they make you do projects, which actually take a while for a beginner web developer.

Start THE WEB DEVELOPER BOOTCAMP by Colt Steele - I am very excited about this bootcamp. I heard many good things about it and dargaCode, whose web dev resources on GitHub helped me a lot and still do, also took it.

Continue to do projects - This is obviously the best and, imo, the only way to learn programming/web dev. I also have a friend who’s working as a front-end web dev and he actually accepted to give me some projects and review my code, which is a big plus and motivation.

[athougcodesatnight]

hi Athoug , i want to improve my self into programming and in javascript can you guide to the best practice way i will really appreciated if you help with it , btw you give motivation to be great developer !

Hello there. I’m glad you chose javascript because I love love love it! I’m not sure what’s your level, I’ll just assume you’re just starting. 

Since your focus is JS, there is this site which is aptly named JavascriptIsSexy provides an 8-week plan to get your hands dirty with it. 

Also, fellow Tumblr @dargacode curated a nice GitHub repository with a bunch of resources. 

There’s also the computer science track in Khan Academy. That’s a good starting point. 

Also, Youtube is a gem of tutorials. Here’s a nice one on JS. 

Now if you already have a programming background. The best way to go about it is by practicing. You can do the challenges in Hacker Rank, Code Wars, and other coding problems site. 

Hope this was helpful. :)

[coderscafe]

Hello, I was wondering if you could guide me to some really basic coding posts, very hyped beginner here :)

hey there! i have answered a similar question here and tagged some posts here. in addition to those i can also recommend having a look at courses offered by udemy (pick a course with good ratings and search google for discount codes so you dont end up spending all your money on it!). there is another full list of resources compiled here by @dargacode which i recommend you check out :)

i’m planning on writing a masterpost for beginners soon so keep an eye out for that! meanwhile if you want we can stay in touch and we can keep each other posted on our progress (i’m definitely a beginner too). send me a message if you’re up for it! :) 

[thepascalmouth-blog]

Of course it isn’t original.

I was googling for Tumblr programming blogs to follow when I found out that, of course (how naive I was to even think otherwise), the idea for this blog is not at all original. Nothing can be at this point, I think. Anyway, I came across this great Reddit post that listed some really promising blogs, particularly dargacode. Maybe I should ask them which language I should start with. (As a side note, there’s actually a term for this thing I’m tryna do -- a progress diary.) I can’t wait to check out all the other blogs.

PS, it’s such a real bummer that you can’t make your secondary blog your primary one. Tumblr, WTH?! Fix this shit right now!

PPS, I’m gonna take the night to think through and decide on the programming language I’m gonna learn in the coming months.

[dargacode]

Day 2663

Here's a great explainer for Debounce vs Throttle, which are two different ways of making sure a user can't run a piece of code too frequently by spamming.

The little interactive examples where they have you click and count the function executions are really great.

[rockingweevil]

@nisssshhhh @vamosaplaticar @getteness @konekoryuugamine @rehman-coding @tattenkid @drawnbykarmira @inabooknook @geomoon @redsimplyrouge @james25july-blog @bpdactyl @oxalic-alien @aliciafbaybee @reading--through--life-blog @studygeeklife @ever-so-noteworthy @johnbrobinson @brooklyn-hustle @dargacode @programmingsite 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[dargacode]

How to see every single orphaned commit in a git repo

Day 2359

This git command shows every commit in your repo which isn't pointed to by anything:

git log --graph --oneline --decorate --all $( git fsck --no-reflog | awk '/dangling commit/ {print $3}' );

Very helpful for when something has gone horribly wrong, like say if you dropped the wrong git stash with important stuff in it 😅

Stack Overflow Thread

[dargacode]

Open project files in your IDE from any GitHub page which shows the file/line

Day 2378

A feature like this existed at my first job, where they had written their own custom github equivalent, and I really missed it!

It's especially nice to be reading a code review comment, and then open the exact file and line in my editor. Works for a lot of different editors!

Chrome Extension Firefox Addon

[dargacode]

"You don't become a programmer by learning quickly. You become a programmer by learning a little bit every day, forever."

/u/kobyjiujitsu

[dargacode]

How to tell git to always ignore changes to a file, but only on your own machine

DAY 1567

My project at work has some config files that I need to update locally, depending on what user account id I’m trying to test with, etc. If I ever accidentally checked in these changes, it would break a lot of stuff. 

After some searching I found this command, which makes sure my local changes to the file are never picked up by git:

git update-index --skip-worktree <foo/bar/filename>

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-update-index

[dargacode]

4 Years of Full-Time Programming!

DAY 1462

It’s been 4 years since I sat down to start doing some coding tutorials in the hopes of changing careers. Despite the euphemistic text on my website, this was actually 2 months after I had quit my job, and I had filled that time by agonizing over what I should do, reading a ton of advice on Reddit, and generally procrastinating in any way I could think of. 

Then, I finally forced myself to do the Hour of Code exercises on Khan Academy, and I drew a picture of a chicken. After that I could rely on momentum to move myself to the next project, and the next course, and the next topic, even when I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. 

I didn’t recognize it at the time, but that first lesson was the most valuable - STOP WORRYING AND JUST CODE SOMETHING. That’s what always turned out to be the right answer all the way through this studying process, the job application process, and fairly often through my coding jobs as well. 

Any time I go back and think about what I should have done at a particular juncture, the answer of what went well, or what I should have done, was to bias my actions toward having completed another project, or mini-project, or practice question, or even just an experiment in my browser console. 

[dargacode]

How, when, and why to negotiate job offers

DAY 1221

Managing my career has not been something that came naturally to me or that I learned growing up. In particular, negotiating is something that always heard that people should do, but I had this midwestern idea that it was something only for assholes, or that it could somehow backfire.

Here are a list of articles which sum up all the things I know about negotiating, and which taught me some of them too:

Negotiating isn’t something that hurts your chances to get a job.

In fact companies expect it, and actually respect you more for doing it.

By default, most candidates will behave in ways that give away all their negotiating power.

We workers have much more power in a negotiation than we first assume.

The entire conventional interview/offer/negotiation process is set up by employers to benefit themselves and get you to accept lower compensation.

So what may feel to you like “being entitled” or “taking advantage” is actually the bare minimum to even have a chance at an equal footing.

Setting the stage for a successful negotiation begins at the first moment you speak to a recruiter, long before receiving a job offer.

It’s a lot of hard work, but it has a higher relative return on investment than possibly any other action in your career.

A job seeker can achieve a strong negotiating position regardless of experience level.

The strongest possible negotiating position is having multiple offers, and being genuinely excited about all of them.

There are many other negotiable elements of a job offer besides salary, or even financial compensation as a whole.

(Ordered from quick lists to more in-depth reads)

Penelope Trunk - 4 tips for salary negotiation

WorkMonger - 6 steps for negotiating your next job offer

Harvard - BATNA essentials

Interviewing.io - What to say when recruiters ask you for a number

Haseeb Qureshi - 10 rules for negotiating, part 1

Haseeb Qureshi - 10 rules for negotiating - part 2

Patrick McKinzie - Make more money, be more valued

Even though these aren’t limited to webdev per se, I’ve added a new section for negotiation resources in my master list:

Web Development Study Resources