I’ve been a marketer for over 10 years and just recently started learning how to code.
Not because I want to become a developer or change careers. I just think it’d be cool to understand enough to build my own little projects - things I’d actually use. Maybe even see if anyone else would pay for one someday.
Attempts So Far
This is technically my third attempt.
First time, I watched about 4–6 videos from Network Chuck on Python. Pretty easy intro but it didn’t really stick. ended up not continuing from there.
Second attempt, I downloaded a bunch of Ruby books on Kindle thought I’d absorb it that way because I’m more of a reader. But that didn’t really work since it’s an even more dry way to work through data types, functions, etc completely without context.
For context, this isn’t completely from scratch. Back in the day, I used to mess around with custom servers in Graal Online. Learned just enough scripting to spawn tanks or special weapons. The syntax is reportedly vaguely similar to Java or C, and somewhere along the way, “if” and “then” logic kind of stuck in my brain. Not that it helps much now, but it’s there.
Motivations
Honestly, part of this post is so I can look back one day and see if I actually broke through or if this ends up being another failed attempt.
Here’s what’s driving me right now:
I want to try build some things. Probably just for myself, but maybe someone buys one. Who knows.
Needed for other fun projects. Some of my future project ideas lean toward hardware/IoT stuff, so I figure this is going to be necessary.
General thinking. Perhaps learning to code adds another dimension to how I think about solving problems.
The Plan
My goal is to learn by doing. Push through and ship something using the skill.
I will try follow a course, but knowing myself, I’ll probably bounce around, taking in different little things as I go. I will hopefully journal the progress here, too. I doubt anyone reads it, but if someone does, that sense of being “seen” helps, you know?
For the language, originally, I picked Python because I liked the overlap with ethical hacking, AI, and potential IoT projects. JavaScript and Go got recommended a lot, but neither really took my fancy. [Later: I changed to Ruby].
Progress
I watched Network Chuck’s Python Series. Maybe 6 videos. Gave me enough momentum to start but but eventually I ran out of interest/steam. Didn’t finish it.
I kinda let this project go and forgot about it until I saw a video pop up on YouTube called Animation vs Coding (above). It showed a stick figure visually demonstrating python code. I thought to myself, “What would I feel if I just copied everything line by line?” So I did. Took me like 2 hours. Really gave me a contextual boost, I think.
Ended up making my app work with Replit but then I talked to a friend at the office (thanks Jesse!), who mentioned because I used AI had I had rammed everything into a single .py file. So I couldn’t really work out what to fix etc. Made me realize I probably should learn more foundations or at least code structuring before vibe coding my way into trouble.
Got Ryan Kulp’s Foundations that teaches Ruby for free - March 4th, which in the absence of a clear plan (of learning how to structure code) I started sort of chipping away at.
Now I’m fairly motivated and find myself sneaking away in the mornings or trying to add a few minutes of study time for Ryan’s course in the evenings.
I’ve also been trying to cement my learning so far planning hypothetical apps in Chat GPT and asking if I’m understanding how MVC and file/function and data processes work together. I’m getting there for simple ideas. Just can’t write up everything together yet.
A quick tally of learning time so far:
Network Chuck’s python learning series (link), probably 6 videos (each 20min) + 40 min practice and follow along time = 6 hrs.
Copying stick figure video mentioned before. 3 hrs.
Reading book on Ruby, 0.5 hrs.
40 lessons out of 89 in Ryan’s foundations course. Probably 20 hours?
Q&A with Chat GPT, 4 hrs?
Total approx 33.5 hrs.
Early Observations
So far I’ve noticed learning really is messy. Learning doesn’t seem to happen linearly where you follow one resource from level 0-1. I’m sort of bouncing around material a bit which keeps me engaged and somewhat motivated which leads me generally back to Ryan’s course.
It’s funny how common this is. I realised it’s the same with other things like learning languages. Sometimes you just gotta throw everything at a general direction and pile up trash to build a mountain.
It was interesting to see how pseudo code was a real thing. When approaching problems, I instinctively wrote out what I wanted each piece of code to do in English then tried to translate that into working Ruby. After awhile, I got more of sense of what was actually possible and how things worked, so I got closer to getting the approach right
It’s pretty interesting how tactile coding is. I didn’t really expect it, but physically typing out everything being demonstrated makes a huge difference to seeing it work. really cool and I wonder if I can improve my learning potency elsewhere by doing the same.
I’m surprised at how coding involves so much Googling! Lol. I somehow had this idea of coders who mostly wrote things from memory, basically crafting solutions and laying pipes with math (lol?) straight from their head. but it seems like there’s a big element, or at least for me, of Googling different things for the language on what methods to use or fixing problems of using those methods.
Anywho, thanks for reading this. Let’s see if I manage to push through enough to eventually make something.