How did you learn to code apps?
To all makers here I would like to learn few things from you. How did you learn coding and built your first app? What was your motivation for it? What were your bigger challenges while learning and how did you overcome them?
I am trying to understand whether most of the successful developers out there learned coding linearly step by step or just learned it randomly by building something they want everytime
Long story short: I learned programming randomly. Initially it was a way to get recognized then I liked it and decided I want to do it professionally. self-taught at first but then learned coding in the university.
my learning journey was a bit of both. built things because i needed to, and when i had the time i'd do a step-by-step course
Which type of learning was faster and motivating for you? Which one would you prefer most?
@naquiuddin learning ad hoc and on the go is def faster, but i'm more motivated when i learn step-by-step because then i actually have a clue on what the h*** i'm doing!! currently my preferred way is to learn (thru proper channels) by building a real project that i'm interested in
Very slowly over time.
Building things I need.
Great! @matteing what was the first app you built? How was your experience?
@naquiuddin My first app was one a long time ago called Alphasquare. It was a social network. Fun and challenging to build.
I want to share a funny story, but please don't laught (too hard). I joined programming class in High School, it's only 12 students from 2 grades. It's just basic learning btw, We learn programming using Pascal.
I realized that learning pascal just a basic, and I want to learn more modern languange. But, my teacher also have limited knowledge on it. So, I print out a Facebook source code to a papers, yes paper. During High School no PC or Laptop allowed in dormitory so I printed it. lol
What I learned? nothing! exacly nothing! I even didn't understood what I read, hahaha
Fast forward today, I learn coding by doing. Create real life project, figure out how to use sintax and function etc. Actually, stackoverflow was my "Gold References" for everything related to coding. And some youtube tutorials.
I was tired to wait for my lazy ex-business partner to code what I needed, so I started doing it myself & got rid of him! ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: IMO doing a project it's definitely easier than trying to learn everything. You don't need to learn everything, you need to know how to build stuff and how to google properly :) Design ---> Search ---> Build ----> Repeat
It's been a combo for me:
- Hacking away on indie projects
- Courses
- Software engineering job
1 and 2 got me good enough to get 3 and 3 is what gave me the opportunity to work with more experienced devs to learn faster.
Started in 2016 when I needed an app to monitor traffic movement in our area of operations (AOR), being in military it was just another issue we needed to solve. I hired an old colleague who motivated me to build stuff myself. He took only 20 days or so and made this huge system.
Above inspired me to pick a basic web developer course by Rob Percieval on Udemy. Loved his course and made a basic portfolio ('basic' :D it took me 2 months building it). I felt like I am a fully learned developer and literally decided to revolutionise our fruit / vegetable market by making an E Commerce website. However, after around 2 months of work I gave up because I failed at placing stuff properly on website. CSS, Php and MySql were 3 things I miserably failed at.
I tried a little to learn php and MySql, but gave up. CSS I mastered (yeah :D) by learning Bootstrap 4 and then making my current-in-progress-app (#zakatlists).
To skip php and MySQL I picked a NodeJs course by Andrea Mead on Udemy. NodeJS and MongoDB solved all my problems and I managed to build my first task scrapper app. I gave access to only my phone contacts. No body gave a shit about it and I have only 1 friend who trusted my instincts thus signed up!
After that I earned 200 GBP by making my aunt's website. Profit = 50 GBP.
Now I am working on my first app from ground up. #zakatlists
Thus, I learnt basics and started making things. I don't know where I stand because I don't have a standard knowledge tool to compare myself with. Never been to a coworking space / hackothon. Makerlog is my first community online where I am feeling confident I am heading in the right direction.
I learned everything online, very slowly. I started with PHP & SQL when I was 15. I didn't do much between my 18-24. Then I started to learn again - and it changes fast! - focusing more on Python and Ruby. Always online courses, almost always free (documentations, tutorials, etc.). Now I'm shipping again indie projects that I need - and I'm learning way more faster :)
I'm actually launching a website about learning to code this weekend :) This is how the site is looking so far :) I've got a few CSS customisations to make but please let me know what you think. http://www.nocsdegree.com (password to view is cezeqi848) it's not finished yet obvs.
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