Today, I did not quite care how much progress I made. Instead I focussed on getting my focus periods in, like I described yesterday. It’s about an hour earlier than when I usually call it a day. And yet, now that I am checking, I have ‘worked’ fewer actual hours than usual. And I have gotten a bit of exercise and housework done too! (This does not usually happen on a normal study day) ...
Hopefully, for the next couple of months at least. As amazing as Dr. Chuck and Brian Yu and Reuven Lerner are, I find myself falling asleep as I learn web development. I look at the videos, I seem to understand things, and then I zone out. A while later, 30 minutes have passed, three videos are over and I am wondering, just what the heck Dr. Chuck is on about. ...
Like I mentioned the other day, Django is driving me batty! Ok, I cannot completely blame Django. A dental procedure has left me in quite a bit of pain and unable to focus. So I was wondering what else I could do, instead of Django and decided I’d learn PostgreSQL. I was tickled pink when I read that Postgres is actually Post Ingres. I am old enough to remember Ingres databases that ran on computers I supported as a junior hardware engineer in the late 90s. I was warned not to ever touch the database machine unless I was supervised :P I also attended seminars for another ‘Post Ingres’ database called NonstopSQL in the early oughts when I worked with Compaq as a support engineer for their laptops. Engineers would have open sessions. But what did a boy servicing laptops have to do with Tandem machines? How did they let me attend? That I will never know. Just that I found them fascinating :) ...
Wasn’t quite well today, so took it slow. The Problem The only thing I managed to learn was what a Cross Site Request Forgery(CSRF) is, and how Django helps protect against it. The Wikipedia page describes it in painstaking detail, and if you want it described a bit more simply, then Jesse Ruderman does an admirable job. Computerphile does an even better job. I am using this analogy in my head. ...
I miss writing about what I learn. So I am going to try and begin again. I was too focussed on trying to learn all the stuff as quickly as possible, so I can go job hunt. But I realise, I need to strike some sort of balance between learning slow enough, so that I can learn and document and enjoy vs going full tilt to finish up the blocks that I need. ...
This post was first sent to my newsletter on May 2nd, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Snow clouds rolling down a mountain peak, near Se La. Click to embiggen I don’t know the name of this bird, I only imagine his glittering beak tucked in a white wing while the clouds— which he has summoned from the north— which he has taught to be mild, and silent— thicken, and begin to fall into the world below like stars, or the feathers of some unimaginable bird ...