I’ve plunged head-first into becoming a born-again developer. Much has changed since I bought my first copy of SAMS Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours. It was the 90s, and back then I was geeking out with VBA in Excel and Access, mostly for fun, but also to help build a vocational education management system. All this while sporting giant glasses and super chunky platform shoes. Très chic, oui?
Let’s get off memory lane and back to the present tense. As I said, I’ve tippled the proverbial Kool-Aid and bought into this mandate more women must code. The key question: when the hell am I going to fit this into my schedule? I already have a full stack – of classes waiting for me to finish them on Udemy, of German and French lessons undone, not to mention my regular work projects and familial responsibilities. Breath. Meditate. Easy answer: don’t try to learn everything in a day, but commit to daily learning.
I tried out a couple of open ed programs and have settled into Codecademy‘s Ruby for Rails module. Once I get my foundation, I may go full throttle with one of Skillcrush’s blueprints.
What I quickly discovered was a need to get my head right to make my short sessions as productive as possible. My stance on the importance of music for optimising running performance is already well-documented. It’s no surprise that I hypothesized it would also improve my concentration and motivation duing code lessons. A two minute search and I was flipping through a handful of playlists. None of them were hitting it for me.
I remembered an article I read a while ago mentioned the neural mechanisms we use to learn foreign languages are the same ones firing when programmers are working their magic. Aha! French pop. This is what I needed. So lovers, this is what I leave you with as we say adieu, à la prochaine.
If you’re curious about coding, check the resources list at Hacking for Women or Learn to Code with Me. If you’re coding and you’ve mastered a sweet playlist, share in the comments.