Learning How To Code

My First 10 Months: All the Ups and Downs

Posted by Adam Jemal on March 16, 2021 · 3 mins read

“Better late than never But never late is better”

- (Drake, Fancy)

Yes you just read that. I just quoted Drake. I felt it was fitting to start my first blog post with this iconic line from Drizzy Drake AKA 6ixGod himself.

6ixGod

Let me explain…

It’s been a rough year with the pandemic going on and social distancing. I knew that I couldn’t let the situation keep me down.

  • So I decided to do something constructive with my time.
  • I got the bright idea to accomplish things I always wish I could do

I went through that big list of “what ifs” and choose 3 things I would do with my newfound free time:

  1. Start a blog
  2. Teach myself how to design and create computer programs
  3. Get super into cooking

How I spent my first 4ish months?

  • I downloaded and set up the dev software, environments, and tools that I would need
  • I spent time learning the basics of Command line, Version control systems, Git, and Github
  • I delved into the basics of C programming language
  • I spent time learning about the the major components of a modern computer

    • Glossing over the units of information on a modern computer
    • Looked into the memory model for programming a modern computer,
    • Briefly skimmed the addressing system for accessing the memory of a modern computer
  • I wrote my official first program in C
  • From there I quickly started to create and design much more complex programs in C
  • Once I got comfortable with some introductory topics I jumped into Web development
    • Learning Basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • For web development
    • I learned while creating a collection of small web pages & web applications

What I concluded after those 4 months?

  • Programming is lots of fun
  • CSS is evil but a necessary evil

CSS_in_A_Nutshell

  • I would need to Enroll in College to cover some areas I feel that I missed

    • Mostly Computer Science theories and terminologies
    • Explore different careers in this field
    • Get better access to certain resources not easily available to myself

What did I do?

  • I enrolled in a college
  • Took advantage of all tech resources and help available to me at the college

The Verdict?

NotBad

With my first year of school almost done. I concluded that enrolling was the right decision since:

  • It helped me bridged some gaps in my knowledge that I missed when I was self-learning
  • It allowed me to meet and learn with fellow CS students that had similar interests with me
  • It allowed me to create an awesome group in which we ended up participating and completing Hackathon (My first Hackathon):