Learning To Code Pt 1. :Books

Learning to code was never a straight-forward thing for me, but nothing really is. It could be the way I’ve grown up, but I am working on it. However, I think it’s mainly because there are many ways to learn.

That’s why there are many tutorials, books, courses, articles, ect.. When I started learning to code I was completely intimidated by the many languages, libraries, and technologies to learn. Everyday, it seems like a new framework, or language comes out that you feel you need to learn.

This feeling grows incrementally when your looking for your first software dev job and you see a job listing 10 different requirements you’ve barely heard of before clicking on the post.

However, I am realizing that no matter what language you learn in, if you get the fundamental concepts down you will be able to understand what it takes to work and succeed in any language.

It’s also important to note, that no matter how many years of coding you’ve done there is always room for improvement. If you already have a curious mind , and you like figuring things out this is a perfect career for you.

But, let me stop rambling. Today’s topic centers around books. Believe it or not, books are a good way of learning not just how to code, but a better, more right way to code. I’m not just talking about books like Learn Python The Hard Way, or other language or technology centered books.

The books, I would actually encourage one to start with are more theory and conceptualized. Books like, The Art of Computer Programming and 99 Bottles of OOP. These books don’t care what language you’ve selected to code in, they care about how you think and refactor your code the best possible way.

These books are great for me, a career-changer, who often suffers from impostor syndrome, but can be great for anyone who wants to think differently on how they code.

Now, as someone who doesn’t always retain information. I will teach you how to get the best out of reading these books:

  1. Read once, then read again

When I first started reading books about programming, it was just a way for me to pass time. However, weeks would pass by and I would forget some of that information. The best way to retain it is repetition. First read the summary of the chapter, and/if the questions/problems. Then read the actual chapter, and then read it again but this time write notes about it. That way you don’t have to read the chapter again, but you can refer to your notes.

2. Don’t focus on memorization , but refer to the material

You don’t have to spend most of your day memorizing it, but going over your notes for as little as 10 minutes a day helps you to remember the information you spent reading. The more you refer to the material, and glance at it, the more you will get these new concepts ingrained.

3. Teach it to yourself and others

Many developers will write articles, or film tutorials for various reasons. I think the best reason, is because it helps you to retain the information better. When you can take someone else’s words and format it in the way you and others can understand, it creates this deeper grasp of the knowledge at hand.

So that’s my take on learning to code…for now. Thanks for reading!

What I Wished I Learned When Starting To Code

I recently came across a video with a similar title to this blog post’s. So, I will list a few things I wish I learned before venturing my coding path as a software developer:

Zsh/bash/ect.. shells

I don’t think this was even covered in my coding bootcamp, so I went a while not focusing on it. However, I recently had to use and learn UNIX and its commands and came to realize how important it is and how it is used in my everyday efforts in coding. For those who don’t know, UNIX is an operating system that supports multi-tasking and multi-user functionality. It’s used on computer systems and is great for navigating across files. source

Regex

I actually came across regex early on in my career and I was absolutely intimidated! I remember looking at how other people solved their Codewars katas and was impressed. Some users were able to take my 12 lines of code and turn it into one line of what looked like hieroglyphics. At the time everything about coding intimidated me, but imagine looking at something without any english words in sight and trying to understand what it does. However, regex is quite useful and is great with shortening the amount of code written. Almost every company will have it at some point, so it’s no use to avoid it.

Code Security Training

This one is quite understanding for me, because in the beginning I just wanted my code to work. I wasn’t concerned with tests and the like, but if I had to download a bunch of dependencies to get the thing to work, I thought cool lets try it! Yet, after several hours of sec code training I realize that’s one way to bring tons of vulnerability to your code. It’s also another way of bringing hackers into your system and disrupting everything. Since then, I’m a bit cautious with good reason. It’s okay to not care about that stuff when your building your first chat app, but when you work at a company responsible for 1,000s or more a day that’s when you’ve hoped you’re prepared.

Thanks to Tina Huang for this blog inspiration and thanks for reading!

Why A Black Girl Who Codes?

So, let’s just add a bit to the intro I posted yesterday. As previously stated, I have had a few blogs over the course of my lifetime with different topics. However, I’ve boldly decided to center this vlog on my life journey as a coder. Why?

There’s more to me than someone who just codes, as you’ll find that out soon when you keep reading. However, when I first came up with this domain I had just decided to venture into a career of software development. I previously had attempted to work as an associate producer for some years and quickly realized that it was not for me.

When making the decision to fully focus on coding, I honestly had a lot of doubts and fears. Comments from past co-workers and some relatives seared my mind with endless questions. Some of them being ‘Will I ever be good at this?’ , ‘Is this a waste of time?’ , and ‘What if I get so deep into this, and find out I chose the wrong thing?’.

Somehow I overcame these because spending time pondering questions I will never get the answer to (at the time) paled in comparison to going after something that will, by God’s grace, get me out of the previous situation I was in. So, to clarify, I had to put all my faith in God even if I did not know what would happen next.

If I sat there doing nothing, nothing would happen. If I did something, I’m closer to achieving that goal.

I didn’t put much thought or even much of a timeline, but believed eventually I will land the title of ‘software developer’ or ‘software engineer’ . I didn’t blog that journey while in it, but I suppose I can spend that time now.

Thanks for reading!

An introduction…

Hello there! This is my very first post on this site, but not my first time starting a blog. I actually am bad at continuing blogs. I’ve had an urge to start since high school but eventually came to the conclusion that I had nothing meaningful to say.

I also had various passions from lifestyle to fashion to commentary and none of them stuck. That’s why when I decided to actually create this site it took me three years to actually write something in it. My fear of not having anything worthwhile to say being one of them. Another, being that I spent the last two years chasing my goal to become a software developer and living in three different locations across the US.

However, today is different. Today, I decided to write my first post despite the fact that the front-end visualization does not look up to par, and despite the fact that I have no idea if anyone will read this blog. My goal is to write everyday about a black girl (yes that’s me!) who codes. I hope you stick around, because there will be another one of these bad boys tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!