Chasing Web Development
May 27, 2020
Over the past 3 years or so I have started and stopped several web development courses. I have learned some solid basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript and I have that wonderful computer scientist attribute of having the steadfastness to dig through google until I solve my problem, but I am tired of wallowing around in my own inability. I want to be proficient and that starts tonight.
I have been watching videos from a web developer by the name of Brad Traversy of Traversy Media. He has had several videos that have inspired me to jump into learning web development, from his experience in the field, to the simplicity by which you can actually make things on the web, even his story inspires me to push the limits of what I can do because he has shown it is possible despite very difficult road blocks. He’s very much an inspiration and if you are reading this, I urge you to watch his guides and tutorials, he is an excellent resource.\ \ Traversy has worked as a web developer for over a decade now and has put considerable resources into developing in depth udemy courses, of which I purchased 3: one that combines html and css into one course, one that covers javascript and the MERN framework which I am going to be taking to get some backend knowledge, hopefully enough to get armed and dangerous.\ \ As I said, I already have some prior knowledge, but it is loose knowledge and unrefined. By taking these courses, I hope to hone my base level experience into a tool that I can use to make something useful for myself and others. I have 3 website ideas and I hope to deploy them asap.
Having said that, I have a lot of ground to cover and a full time job as well as a bunch of other hobbies to tend to, so in order to balance it all out, I have made a loose outline for myself. There are 50 hours of education I need to pour through and while I will want to go more in depth into these videos than just the time I dedicate to watching the content, I am going to set aside three afternoons a week (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) and watch 2 hours of videos, following along, writing code and experimenting to get ready to make something as fast as possible.
I would like to have a portfolio website of live websites I have made or demos I have mocked up by the end of the year and its almost June. I am not taking these courses to make portfolio websites, but rather to get the skills to make them myself. There’s a lot to do and honestly this only covers the front end of a website to a significant degree, but I am confident once I get the ball rolling I can roll with the punches from there.
So, where does that leave me?
50 hours / (6 hours / week) = 8.3 weeks. \ \ As of the day I’m writing this, I will be set by the end of July to start really making my own sites.
Off I go.
Written by Thomas Ogden, a hobbiest who dabbles in a lot of random junk.