Checking in on my Coding Journey
I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago as a kind of New Years Resolution, to declare my Python goals for the year. My resolutions were:
- Code every day, even if it’s just a little
- Finish the problems on the Exercism.io Python Track, doing one a week until mid-March
- Begin a personal side project in the first three months
- Push a commit to one open source project by midyear
- Blog at least once a week
- Attend one networking event a month
- Read a book a month
So, how am I doing on my journey, three weeks into the year? Well, let’s take each of these resolutions one at a time and consider them.
Code Every Day
I haven’t been able to do this as much as I would like. There have definitely been days I’ve missed due to being tired or just generally pissed off. Also, I find a good chunk of my time is also now devoted to writing and cataloging what I’ve learned, which is also valuable, but takes me away from the command line in a big way. Typing takes time.
I’m hoping the blogging and journaling pays dividends down the road though, as I’m able to check back on what I wrote for help on future problems and to review explanations of my stuff in my own words.
Exercism Problems
This one has taken the bulk of my time. I am slowly progressing (50% done!) and have slipped about a week behind on my goal of finishing by the spring. This is a combination of 1) not coding every day (see above) and 2) long wait lines in the queue for mentor help. I’m still fully committed to this because it gives code reviews and feedback from living, breathing software engineers, which beats the hell out of building your chess programs in secret!
Overall, I am so glad to be doing this though. Of all my activities on this list, this has to be one of the top two in terms of enrichment (the other would be blogging like this). The mentors on Exercism have been super supportive and have opened avenues and helped me to understand coding concepts in ways I never could have gotten struggling with problems on my own. From regex and the Collections module to nested list comprehensions and just general problem structure, I’ve learned so much. Thanks Exercism mentors, wherever you are in the digital ether!
Begin a personal side project
I haven’t gotten to this yet. I started a text-based adventure game and have been fiddling with Django for Beginners to deploy an app but both have hit dead ends at the moment (update: I got my first Django app to work! It is a blank home page and blank about page, and that is all. second update: I developed the basic class for a character in this game, looking to move on to game play shortly….) I do hope to pursue both the text-based adventure game and the next incarnation of an app when I have some more time though.
Push One Open Source Commit
I did this! Thanks to this excellent tutorial, I pushed my first commit to an open source project. Just the act of doing this has gotten me excited about the prospects of open source. AND by doing this I got an invite to a group that specifically helps newcomers to find and submit to open source projects. My next goal here is to find a project I can really sink my teeth into and make a difference. I’d love to do something that could help the environment or even just my local government. Have to look into this more.
Blog At Least Once a Week
This one has actually been a lot of fun. I’ve been able to write a few blog posts breaking down a technical problem and also recapping chapters from a book I’m reading. And many more are on the way (some are chambered atm) so stay tuned!
Attend One Networking Event
I haven’t done this, but am resolving to try to do this in the upcoming week before my time runs out. There are quite a few in Boston and the surrounding area that look like fun.
Read a Software Book a Month
Currently I’m reading Clean Code by Robert C. Martin and blogging incessantly about it. I linked to a free copy of the book but I absolutely intend to buy it from the publisher when I finish it. Nothing is more depressing than a book on your bookshelf that you haven’t finished and anyway I have enough of those already.
I should add I’ve also been listening to an excellent podcast, Code Newbie, which is a great resource to learn about how other developers got their start. Definitely worth a listen for any aspiring developers out there!
