Work

Today was a really good day. Did four productive hours of work. Managed to focus, and follow the lessons and write my own code. What did I do/learn today? I need to write a lot more code. I need to write lots of HTML/Javascript, to gain a better understanding. I thought I could get by with basic stuff, but the more I learn Django, the more I see that it works hand in hand with the content and styling that I have written. (Right now there is a set of templates for the course, but I can see myself taking much longer, if this was not there.) The MVT flow is now gradually making more sense to me. What stuff belongs to a model? Or a view? I would listen to the instructor, (Brad), then pause the video and then try to do it myself first. Or at least think through the process and mentally prep an answer. And then go see what he did, and how he did it. Worked with Apps and URLs and Templates and learnt to write code across these files, wiring one up to the other, so that the page would render.

Meta post. More than Django itself, I am beginning the phase of my journey, where now I write code and install programs and do all the things. Am committing 2 hours to this daily, on weekdays along with a tiny what did I learn post. I am beginning with Django itself, and if I have difficulties with any underlying concepts, I will quickly dive down and write code to understand those. Learning along with Brad Traversy’s Python Django Dev To Deployment. It’s a bit old, but I like the way he teaches. And to make sure I am not cargo culting, I am doing this with Django 3 (the course has Django 2) ...

Here’s putting in some thought into what I’ll do this #CNC2021. Their first mail asked me to reflect on … Determine what has worked. Figured out the basics of data structures and algorithms Figured out how to write in Python Figured out how write my own code. Took a lot of work and persistence. Took a lot of grit. Realised that I’m not “slow.” I just have a hard life and could only put in fewer hours compared to the folks who zoomed past me. Determine what has NOT worked. Just what I said above but in a slightly negative manner. This takes a lot of grit. I need to figure out how to stop bare knuckling it and do it sustainably. I’m dog slow currently. I need to look up everything and I get distracted when I do that. I keep comparing myself to others and get overwhelmed What are your long-term goals? Get a job by accomplishing, in the next 6-12 months, what I listed in my introductory post. I need to do all sorts of basic exercises in the languages I am learning (Python/HTML/CSS/JavaScript) I need to find and contribute to open source projects, to get a feel of how it is to work with folks and to understand how this whole world functions I need to write toy projects for myself. What are your short-term goals? By the end of this challenge, I want to get into the rhythm of writing code across all the three goals I listed up above I just need to see steady forward progress

Enough learning. I now have to drill what I’ve learnt over the past few weeks and months by writing lots of code. Been noodling around with what that might look like in my head. Here’s what I got. After tentatively coding up stuff in a couple of domains and after a short chat with a friend, I realise I love writing code for the web. I love reading. I love to write on my blog. I love that with just a few keypresses, my words can be read by anyone on the web, no gatekeeper required. I would love to write code to enable this for more people. I would love to play and tinker and push at the boundaries of this domain. This intersection of all this is web development. Ergo, I want to become a web developer. ...

This post was first sent to my newsletter on March 19th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) I blame Mahe for this post. Hey, Jason! Can you please write an article on how to build a website like yours, where I can post my blogs? Check out her blogs, here and here. This one is squarely aimed at all the young ones, who are convinced that they need to be writing. (Maybe, it was me who convinced you, in the first place.) You are young (or like me, forever young) and broke (also like me). You need a place for your thoughts to call home. You need a place to write, and grow and focus more on what you want to say about life and what you study or what you work at, or the portfolio/showcase of thoughts you will slowly build. ...

Hello folks! Wish me luck on my Django journey