Learning how to teach myself to code

John Mathews — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 11:58:43 +0000

4 years ago I started learning how to code, and it was really difficult! It's still difficult, but I now have a collection of tools and perspectives that make it less daunting (more on that below). Leveling up requires one more abstraction to wrap my head around, or one more API to understand. I can do it.

But I don't think it needed to be so difficult, so now I'm building Code School Meta to make it easier to teach yourself how to code.

Learning to code has been fun, ultimately successful, and life changing (hello job security!) but at the beginning it was sooo slow, and super tricky.

I remember feeling like an imposter, and thinking that I was definitely not a real developer - I hadn't taken any classes in computer science. I knew almost nothing about anything.

The process began with Pandas, a (the) Python analytics library. Spreadsheets were slowing me down at work, and I was bored. I found this great tutorial by Brandon Rhodes. From there I found out about Jupyter Notebooks, and then I found about Github pages and how to make a blog using pelican.

That led to HTML and CSS (and also JavaScript, which I tried very hard to avoid for as long as possible). I felt like a monkey bashing a keyboard as I tried to make HTML elements do what I wanted.

Git was next, but I found this amazing tutorial to help me learn. It made Git seem OK, and also helped HTML and CSS make more sense too. Bonus!

I suddenly realized that great learning materials are crucial if I'm to keep momentum and enjoy learning.

So now I'm now working on Code School: Meta. It's an online community to make it easier to teach yourself how to code - less confusion, more encouragement, lots of high quality resources.

If you'd like to know more, please check it out and sign up for updates.

I built an app 🏋 to send emails years in the future 🎉 or conditionally 💀

John Mathews — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 16:00:08 +0000

Hello Dev.to community!

After a few months getting to grips with Django, I've made pippip.email - a web app that lets you create emails and set a send date years in the future.

🔥 📨 💌 😊

What can it do?

You can create messages and set a send date. When the date occurs, the email is sent and you get a confirmation email.

Is that all it can do?

Well kinda, at the moment. Next feature is the "dead man's switch" - which doesn't require you to be dead, or male. 👀

Write a message and set the switch, then every 6 months we'll send you a check-in email with a link asking you to confirm you don't want the emails sent.

If you don't click the link, (or the links in the follow up email), we'll understand that you want your message to be sent!

🙌

Perfect for when you're concerned you might "disappear" and would like to send some final goodbye's, or let someone know something important.

How is this going to make my life better?

I can think of a few scenarios:

At a weeding, the happy couple could invite their guest to write them messages that they'll receive on their wedding anniversaries.
Write your mum a special email for her birthday, when you feel like writing it and not when you need to send it urgently
Write a message to your partner that they'll receive on your 5th anniversary. Do the same next year too and then they'll have a wonderful present.
At graduation, a group of friends get together and write letters to each other guessing what their lives will be like in 3 years time.
Write yourself an email that you'll receive next year. Give yourself some good advice and encouragement.

💪 🎉

Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Forem: John Mathews