Teach Yourself Code

If you have the money, buy some education! It will accelerate your learning.

“How to Teach Yourself Code” makes five points:

  1. Code Everyday
    1. Write Code Every Day by John Resig
    2. Build up intrinsic motivation where you feel your work is its own reward.
    3. Focus on three days in a row
    4. Focus on three weeks in a row
    5. Focus on three months in a row — then it’s a habit!
    6. Can always fall off of a habit. Then get back on!
    7. Pomodoro Technique
      1. 30 minutes — 25 minutes then five minute break
      2. Once in the zone, may not want/need a break.
      3. Start with three consecutive days of pomodoro
  2. Hang out with other people who code
    1. Critical for building intrinsic motivation
    2. Feel accountable to them. Want to report good things about writing programs.
    3. Pair programming
    4. The meet up hack
      1. Like insects — they are just as scared of you as you are of them.
    5. Momentum is a big deal!!
  3. The tools really don’t matter. What matters is working — producing programs.
    1. Don’t get hung up on tools. This is a common way to procrastinate that doesn’t feel like procrastinating.
  4. Don’t worry what to build. Focus on how to build it.
  5. Contribute to open source (Legacy Code).

Tags: programming, learning

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