I’ve been reviewing basic programming with HTML and Javascript for the past two months. I used the resources at freeCodeCamp, which conveniently begins its curriculum with building a strong coding foundation in those two languages.

Since finishing up at the end of August, I’ve spent the past week diving into smart contracts. I’ve been following along with Patrick Collins’ excellent YouTube course on learning smart contracts with Solidity and JavaScript, which has been the best introduction to the subject I’ve been able to find.

A huge difficulty in learning to code is simply getting familiar with the tools. We spent a lot of time getting Visual Studio Code set up. It was more difficult than I expected, but now that I have some practice, it’s starting to feel like second nature. I’ve been playing around with keyboard shortcuts to speed things along.

I’ve also been learning to use GitHub. When I asked for help on a discussion forum, they asked me to push the code to the website. This seemingly-simple request sent me down the rabbit hole for hours as I had to learn to run git from the terminal, sync it up with my account, and push the proper files. It was slow and awkward in the beginning, but now it feels easy.

I’m currently a third of the way through the course; I expect to be finished before the end of the month.

Things I Did Well This Week

1. Consistently engaged in at least four hours of pure programming every day so far this month, not to mention spending additional hours on supplementary reading and research.

2. Successfully integrated a variety of tools on my desktop. This was one weakness of the freeCodeCamp courses; everything was done in a simulated browser environment. The Patrick Collins course is much more of “the real thing.”

3. Asked questions in the GitHub discussion forum when I needed help.

4. I uninstalled all of my video games from my desktop. They were just too distracting.

Things I Will Improve Next Week

1. Despite making meaningful progress every day, it feels like I could be getting more done. I’ll dig out my copy of Indistractable and put those techniques to work.

2. I’ve been pretty heads-down on coding, and not not spending enough time connecting. I’ll spend more time in the DeveloperDAO discord server, getting to know people and finding places where I can lend a hand.

I’ve been reviewing basic programming with HTML and Javascript for the past two months. I used the resources at freeCodeCamp, which conveniently begins its curriculum with building a strong coding foundation in those two languages.

Since finishing up at the end of August, I’ve spent the past week diving into smart contracts. I’ve been following along with Patrick Collins’ excellent YouTube course on learning smart contracts with Solidity and JavaScript, which has been the best introduction to the subject I’ve been able to find.

A huge difficulty in learning to code is simply getting familiar with the tools. We spent a lot of time getting Visual Studio Code set up. It was more difficult than I expected, but now that I have some practice, it’s starting to feel like second nature. I’ve been playing around with keyboard shortcuts to speed things along.

I’ve also been learning to use GitHub. When I asked for help on a discussion forum, they asked me to push the code to the website. This seemingly-simple request sent me down the rabbit hole for hours as I had to learn to run git from the terminal, sync it up with my account, and push the proper files. It was slow and awkward in the beginning, but now it feels easy.

I’m currently a third of the way through the course; I expect to be finished before the end of the month.

Things I Did Well This Week

1. Consistently engaged in at least four hours of pure programming every day so far this month, not to mention spending additional hours on supplementary reading and research.

2. Successfully integrated a variety of tools on my desktop. This was one weakness of the freeCodeCamp courses; everything was done in a simulated browser environment. The Patrick Collins course is much more of “the real thing.”

3. Asked questions in the GitHub discussion forum when I needed help.

4. I uninstalled all of my video games from my desktop. They were just too distracting.

Things I Will Improve Next Week

1. Despite making meaningful progress every day, it feels like I could be getting more done. I’ll dig out my copy of Indistractable and put those techniques to work.

2. I’ve been pretty heads-down on coding, and not not spending enough time connecting. I’ll spend more time in the DeveloperDAO discord server, getting to know people and finding places where I can lend a hand.