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Someone with a similar start to me, who has progressed further.

7/21/2015

I have just come accross this reddit post from someone who had advanced ahead of me but started in all the same places. It served as a source of hope for me so I thought I would plot where I am along his journey. https://www.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/364s5w/how_i_learned_rails_from_absolute_scratch_and_got/

1. Michael Hartl on Rails - done a bit
2. Codecademy - done a bit

I'M HERE!

3. Lynda - I haven't tried it yet.
4. Michael Hartl completed/clicked.

Videos
5. HTML Essential Training (Bill Weinman)
6. CSS Fundamentals (James Williamson)
7. Foundations of Programming: Object Oriented Design (Simon Allardice)
8. Ruby Essential Training (Kevin Skoglund)
9. Ruby on Rails 4 Essential Training (Kevin Skoglund)
10. Mackenzie Child- https://www.youtube.com/user/mackenziechild/videos
11. http://railscasts.com/

Two points in this article really stand out to me. "I want to make it clear that for about six months I made it a point to get in at least 1 hour of learning to program for at least five nights out of the week."

"I tried my luck and moved up to KC. That was the turning point. Being around other developers made it easy to ask questions and look at code written by other people."

From reading other advice, my guess is that these two decisions are probably the biggest factors in his progression and something that I haven't really mastered yet.

At 32, I am even more inclined to follow his final bit of advice:

"Without years of experience, which you cannot accelerate, I would say that your best option would be to have your own vision in mind that you want to bring to fruition."

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All beginners are not created equally.

7/13/2015

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The majority of beginners programming books are not for beginners. I came across a post by Zed Shaw Early vs Beginner Programmers that sums this problem up pretty well. http://zedshaw.com/2015/06/16/early-vs-beginning-coders/

TLDR; There is a big difference between someone who is literally starting out and someone who has done 100 hours of programming. Both are often described as just beginners.

I think it would help if people could represent their level on a more 'ANKI-like' basis. What I mean by this is you might start by tracking what courses you have tried and failed to complete, vs those that you have completed. If you could also rate how hard you found each one, (all have been hard for me) it might be good system for recommending your next course.

There are a few good lists of basic courses around but until you finish a few shorter one's without too much trouble, it's probably not optimal to jump into a big book. For some people it will be, but for us mere mortals, an easier line of attack I think would help.

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Most fun beginner Javascript Course - Beginner Level 1

7/12/2015

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I've just completed the railsbridge snake game. http://curriculum.railsbridge.org/javascript-snake-game/javascript-snake-game

This is the first course that has brought very quick instant gratification with a feeling for an actual game with 10 lines of code.

Most others force you to install and setup your programming environment which often leads to a lot of wasted time.

This took me about 3 hours in total. Partly because I did in 30 minute chunks and re-read it a few times to bring some basic concepts home for myself.

I didn't understand it all by the end. Its the most function-dens piece of code I have written to date but I have put into my Anki flashcards, some of the basic concepts at least.

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Someone with a similar start to me, who has progressed further.

All beginners are not created equally.

Most fun beginner Javascript Course - Beginner Level 1

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