Forem: Josh Nelson ⚡️

The 3 Traits You Need Before Learning a New Skill

Josh Nelson ⚡️ — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:24:30 +0000

I was going to make this post about self-taught coders but realized that the three traits I’m talking about will be relevant whether you’re learning to code, UX Design, or even something unrelated to tech.

The fact of the matter is simple, learning any new skill is a long and difficult process. You’ll face hardships, excitement, and accomplishment. But the barrage of emotions is what makes this task a challenge. The three traits I am about to dive into will help you on your journey and will help you reach your end goal.

Regardless of your industry, if you focus on these things you will see improvement in many areas of your life.

Resilience

I’m starting with resilience because if you don’t have it, you might as well not start learning anything in the first place. Teaching yourself, going to a Bootcamp, or even getting a degree is not a smooth process. Whichever path you are on you will face hardships, setbacks, roadblocks, and anything else you can think of.

Resilience is defined as the following:

The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

If that sentence does describe the journey to reaching your goals, then nothing will. Anything that involves a long process, patience, and time requires resilience with that. You will face frustrations not making process in your learning, or find difficult areas in your industry or class.

It is not the difficulties you face that define you, but rather, how you respond to the difficulties that are bound to come. Resilience is the ability to push through the sludge, to put your head down and grind.

When things get tough you have two choices, run from your goals and quit, or put your head down and grind. Resilience lives in one of these options and I think we know which one.

Focus

The next important trait to have when going through the learning process is focus. Focus is defined as the center of interest or attention. Focus and resilience go together hand in hand, to be resilient, you need to be focused, and to be focused you need to be resilient.

Finding focus is not easy in the cluttered age we live in. Tune out distractions, put on headphones, or do whatever works for you. Find that quiet place & just start.

You’ll face plenty of difficulties when trying to learn something, and even more when trying to focus. But when you can sit down for an hour, or two, or even just 30 minutes and focus on making progress, you’ll see the returns.

Use your resilience to get and stay focused, then don’t look back.

Organization

When beginning a long and drawn-out process where you won’t see the rewards for your hard work right away takes many skills. But without organization, odds are you won’t stick with your journey.

I mean organization in the way of planning your journey. Imagine going to a Bootcamp or college class where the teacher has no idea what topics they’re starting with, or are going to cover in the class. Most likely, you wouldn’t go to that Bootcamp because it is missing organization.

This is the same for teaching yourself, why would you stick with a plan if you have no real plan?

You need to write out your plan, with dates for completion of certain steps, and an end date where you hope to achieve your goal. Layout your steps, in order, and start on step 1.

Don’t worry if you add, or remove steps as you go, but if you are generally following a written plan, or goal, you are much more likely to achieve your desired end result.

Layout your steps, milestones, and end goals. Organize what resources you are going to be needing and using to learn whatever skill you are starting, and then start.

Recap

All three traits are equally important, and it depends on your personality type for which ones you’ll need to put the most effort into.

Resilience is the ability to push through the hardships and setbacks.

Focus is the ability to ignore the noise and remove distractions.

Organization is the ability to plan and lay out the process you need to achieve your goal.

There are many more traits that could be helpful in the journey of learning something new, but I chose these three because of how relevant they have been for my own journey.

To close, above all, just believe in yourself and your ability to learn and achieve something. You can do whatever you set your mind to.

Why I'm Teaching Myself to Code in 2020

Josh Nelson ⚡️ — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 13:47:18 +0000

I had a brief run-in with programming in high school. My brother was interested in it, so I bought the book Coding For Dummies and couldn’t make it through 20 pages. I try CodeCademy and that lasted less than I week, so I move on and forget all about it.

What Sparked My Interest

Fast forward 5 years and I’m at a career fair in my senior year of college, when a recruiter at my dream company asks me a question about a job on my resume. I respond with, “Well I was tasked with building and executing on a full-stack content strategy”, having no idea what full-stack meant, I thought it sounded professional.

She responds, “Oh full-stack, do you do full-stack software development?”. I obviously respond with no, and she responds with, “Oh dang, if you did we’d hire you right here. But, yeah you can apply for marketing internships online!”.

I leave there frustrated. All I wanted at this time was a good job and wasn’t having any luck getting any leads. So I think back to what that recruiter said, “full-stack developer”, and thought “what the hell is that?”. I stay up late that night doing some research and get introduced to front-end development.

I had built websites before using themes and such, but seeing what front-end development really was, I was immediately sold. I bought a book on Amazon and dove right in. You can read about my journey up until now, here.

That’s the story of how I got interested in programming – I wanted to be indispensable and sought after for jobs. But as a Marketing Major at average University, it was the other way around.

I felt as if learning to code, becoming this, “full-stack developer”, would make a difference.

My Reasons

During the first couple of weeks, I fell in love. I loved digital experiences, I would go to Awwwards and just browse websites, even CodePen and just browse through cool projects. I remember thinking that making something cool was my dream.

I love the micro-interactions like buttons, forms and other stuff like that. I would just think about how cool it could be if I could make stuff like that. Thanks, Aaron Iker.

But what really drew me into coding was the lifestyle. I’m not an extrovert, and I love spending time at home with family and those close to me. I had heard how easy it was to work remotely, and I had just read The 4-Hour Work Week and was sold on that idea of working from home.

Besides remote work, the elephant in the room is the salary. It is no secret that software developers make great money. And while I’ve never been someone to chase money, this is one benefit that helps in the long run.

Other than the lifestyle, I have always had this nagging sense that I would start a business one day. After growing up through the SaaS era, working for a SaaS startup, and being around digital business, I thought that was for me. This lead me to think that I needed to learn to code to execute a build a web product for a business.

The Bottom Line

The one similarity between all of these reasons is that they are long-term oriented. None of these goals are short-term but will affect my life way down the road. Being 20 years old, it’s hard to remember that the big payoffs for the hard work it will take to learn to code will take time.

But, hopefully, when I look back in 20 years I will be grateful I made the decisions I am making today. Learning to code is no easy, or short-term task but I believe by sticking with it that it will pay off.

Why 2020

The start of the new decade, a fresh beginning! I’ve been slowly making progress so that I can hit 2020 on the ground running. I figure if I put my head down and work for a year, I will be ready to build cool projects and begin looking for beginner jobs.

I am in no rush to find a job or start my career. I want to be ready, and ready to contribute.

So why 2020? Because software development is going nowhere and I’ll have plenty of time to find my dream job when I’m ready.

Recap TL;DR

I was having trouble finding marketing jobs and a recruiter said if I was a full-stack developer I’d be hired right there
Did research, found interest in front-end development
Ended up loving the process early on
I love the micro-interactions and UI/UX of good websites and want to build stuff like that
The lifestyle, work-life balance, and salary are ideal
Ability to build my own products for future business endeavors
Trouble remembering the work will pay off later in life

What I Learned From 2 Months of Teaching Myself To Code

Josh Nelson ⚡️ — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 16:52:32 +0000

I’ll preface this article with some background. I am just almost 3 months into committing to learning how to code, and before this, I had no prior coding experience. And 3 months later, I don’t have a job or a portfolio.

This post will walk through my timeline, and what I’ve learned both physically and mentally.

OCT. 12

I started officially on Oct. 5th. I ordered HeadFirst HTML + CSS and got same-day delivery on Amazon. When the book arrived, I dove right in. It took no longer than a week to fly through that book.

After the week of reading and completing the projects in the book, I took to CodeCademy and started on the Front-End Development Path. I got a decent way through the CSS portion when I realized there are cheaper ways to learn HTML + CSS.

I then took to YouTube and spent the next three weeks diving heavily into CSS. Mostly just coding along to the videos and practicing. During this time I went to two free meetups at my local Bootcamp where they talked HTML and CSS, but it was truly basic knowledge for people new to coding.

NOV. 14

It was time to test the waters in JavaScript and I was scared. Having liked the Headfirst book so much, I bought the JavaScript version. But after building visual things, there was no way I could sit and learn through a book again.

I then dove right into freeCodeCamp and their JavaScript curriculum. In the beginning, I loved it. I was learning so much, loved the interactive platform and videos, but then after about two weeks got frustrated. I wrote a post on that experience here. Needless to say, I started looking elsewhere.

It was during this time I took a week off for the holidays.

I spent the next week or so on YouTube watching Coding Train videos. But soon needed some direction.

DEC. 5

I buy Colt Steele’s Web Dev Udemy course. I start working my way through the beginning of HTML and CSS and after breaks for my college finals and the holidays, I am now working through Bootstrap.

That catches you up with how I structured my learning in the past two months. No it was not super intensive or demanding, but I put in the time I could. Now, here’s what I learned.

What I Learned – Coding

Starting with coding specifics, I have learned a great deal about HTML and CSS. My HTML is solid, CSS is getting there. I realize that CSS is responsible for the majority of the visually appealing minimalistic websites that I loved, so I decided to double down and focus on CSS in my free time.

As for building things, I have built some mediocre buttons and landing pages from scratch. Nothing crazy and no real projects. I’ve been holding off until I’m done learning JavaScript before I focus heavily on projects.

JavaScript related, I understand the syntax and how the language works, but currently have not built anything meaningful with it besides a clock that changes color.

Most of the stuff I have built is from coding along with videos, other than a few landing pages.

Outside of code, I have spent a good amount of time learning UX design primarily through YouTube. I learned how to use Adobe XD, and have built some practice projects and wireframes from a design standpoint.

UX design is my favorite thing to learn, mostly from Caler Edwards and Design Course on YouTube. My goal with learning design is to become a full-stack UX designer that can design and code websites, web apps, and mobile apps from scratch.

To be honest, I am very confident in my understanding of HTML and CSS, but UX and JavaScript are currently what I am focusing on learning.

What I Learned – Mental

This is arguably the most important part of learning to code. Without building the mental skills, teaching yourself is probably unattainable.

The most important skill I learned was patience. I have no intention to rush myself into learning how to code to get a developer job. I am taking my time to make sure I am ready and comfortable to join the workplace.

Could I bring myself to be ready to apply for jobs within the next two months? Probably, but I would rather solidify my learning to land my dream job instead of a random one.

Next, is focus. Learning to code on your own is hard. Bringing yourself to sit at your computer and focus every day for hours on end is brutal at first, but it gets easier. Get some headphones, light loFi music, and tune everything else out.

If you can focus on one task and not get distracted by other courses, tweets, or videos, you’ll speed through the learning process. It just takes discipline.

Last is perseverance. Learning to code is frustrating and you will hit roadblocks. If you want to give up on the first roadblock you’ll never make it. Take a step back and remember why you are learning to code.

Being able to get over the small hurdles like not understanding something, or not being able to focus will help you on your journey tremendously.

Closing

I did not make the most of those 2 months learning to code, but I stuck with it and made progress. The things I accomplished took some 15-20 hour weeks, some 5-10 hour weeks, and then even some weeks off.

Don’t burn yourself out and set unrealistic goals. I found 30 minutes a day to not be enough for me, so I would try to find a time where I could commit 2-3 hours a day. This worked for me, and it may not work for you.

As with everything, find and test what works and then put your head down and grind.

My plan for 2020 is to continue learning front-end development and UX design. I have no rush to get a job or build a portfolio, as I plan on doing so once I am ready.

I’ll be writing another post with my plan for 2020 and beyond so stay tuned!

Resources Mentioned

Colt Steele Web Developer Bootcamp
freeCodeCamp
Caler Edwards
Design Course
CodingTrain
Grand Circus Bootcamp
Headfirst HTML + CSS
CodeCademy

Additional Resources
Dev Ed YouTube
CSS Tricks
MDN
Dribbble

The one problem with freeCodeCamp

Josh Nelson ⚡️ — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 00:39:12 +0000

I’ll start with some background knowledge. I’ve been learning to code for around 2 months now. I have no prior coding experience, other than some failed attempts at learning HMTL & CSS on CodeCademy.

When I committed to learning to code, with the goal of becoming a front-end web developer, I didn’t know where to start. After reading the Headfirst book on HTML & CSS, playing around on CodeCademy, and mostly YouTube, I had learned and applied basic HTML & CSS.

Next was JavaScript. Through Twitter and YouTube, I had heard so much about freeCodeCamp, so I gave it a try.

I was excited, dove into the podcasts, forum, and began hearing success stories of people like me learning to code via their platform and then landing big developer jobs. I was sold.

The Beginning

When I started, I was eager, I flew through the first couple of lessons of the JavaScript curriculum. I was hooked. I would spend 2–3 hours a day learning as much as I could about the basics (if you are thinking that's not that much, I’m busy). I built my learning plan around FCC, I told myself that I wouldn’t start any other resource until I finished it, my first mistake.

I continued, watching videos with different explanations, reading the documentation, and more. I was learning so much, basic stuff like what var and function() was. I thought it was so cool.

But as I continued to plug and chug through the first few lesson blocks, I was getting frustrated.

My Roadblock

The first issue I came across, was the lack of video assistance. During the JS basics curriculum, if you got stuck you could easily pop into the hint section and watch a very well-done code tutorial. This was one of my favorite parts and one of the biggest contributors to my learning.
After you completed the basics section, this feature goes away. They still offered the code solution with a brief text explanation, but it wasn’t the same.

I started to get annoyed, I felt like I wasn’t understanding what I was doing without that video help and reassurance.
I wanted to learn how to make cool websites or web apps! Not learn how to sort through an array. I knew I needed to know how to do that for parts of this idealistic website I had in my head, but I was tired of not seeing any progress.

I was tired of not being able to complete a challenge and think “Oh so I could do that to make this type of site”, or “Oh so that’s how you animate things”.

What went from hours spent on freeCodeCamp, went to hours on YouTube watching people actually build things with JavaScript.

I was getting too ahead of myself, not staying patient. But I couldn’t help but think, “I’m gonna finish this course and not know how to make a single thing related to a webpage with JavaScript”. So I stopped.

The Problem

I am a visual person. I want to create a smooth UI or UX. While I know you need to take baby steps, once I learned the basics of how the language worked, I wanted to learn how to make my regular HTML & CSS websites look a little bit better.

Throughout the entire curriculum, that supposedly takes 300 hours, there was not one lesson that let you visualize what you were doing.

All you would get was the checkmark that it was right. You had to console.log() the solution yourself to even see if it worked.

I got frustrated. I was too much a visual learner for 50+ hours of typing text and not seeing anything besides some check marks to show for it.
Boiled down, the problem I had with freeCodeCamp was that there was no visual applications in the JavaScript curriculum.

This is a language that can do just about anything, is present on almost every webpage, but yet instead of seeing how any of that magic works, the curriculum focuses on the non-visual side.

While their curriculum could be based on research on how to learn best or something of the like, beyond the basics section, it just didn’t work for me.

freeCodeCamp is not bad

By no means do I think FCC is bad, or a waste of time. Learning the basics of JavaScript was effortless and efficient. Personally, I just wanted it to be a little more visual.

Maybe this was just their JS side, I know the HTML / CSS curriculum lets you see the websites as you create it, so I wonder why you couldn’t see something similar for JS.

Overall, freeCodeCamp is the best free resource for learning to code in a structured way. I personally, got ahead of myself and began getting frustrated with the lack of visuals.

The material you learn in the JavaScript curriculum is valuable, relevant, and taught in a comprehensible way, just lacking in visuals.

Regardless, I would recommend the site or curriculum to anyone — just don’t limit yourself to FCC as your only learning resource.