Learning to code, becoming a self-taught programmer, can be a daunting task when you are just beginning the process. The good news is there are tons of resources out there to help.
I started my learn to code journey earlier this year and have spent many hours sorting through all the resources out there to find the good ones. In some cases, however, even the good resources include jargon that might be confusing and difficult to understand for the beginner. I’ve created crookedCode in an attempt to break through that jargon and help others along their journey.
What makes me qualified to write about something I’m only in the process of learning? Great question… Rather than trying to justify what makes me qualified to cover these subjects, let me give the two reasons why I’ve created this blog:
The first reason, as I mentioned above, is that I’ve spent many hours trying to find good resources to help along the way. I hope that sharing what I’ve learned, and where to look for help, will enable others spend more time learning to code (and less time looking for how to learn).
The second reason, and this is a bit more selfish, is that going back and writing posts about challenges and projects that I’ve already completed will help solidify the concepts in my head. I find that the best way to truly understand a concept is to try to teach it to someone else. So that’s what I plan to do.
I’m currently working my way through freeCodeCamp. If you’re interested in learning to program, especially web development, I highly recommend checking them out. It’s a completely free program, with a very active and supportive community, and if you need another reason, they’re also doing some social good through their work with nonprofits.
We’ll start by working through examples of the freeCodeCamp curriculum (both algorithm challenges and development projects) and move on from there as we get more proficient. That said, we’ll be focusing on the logic behind the algorithms and we’ll be coding in Javascript, HTML and CSS.
I’ve learned quickly that there are usually multiple ways to solve coding problems. So, being new to this, I’m sure that I will not always provide the most efficient solution or most elegantly written code, so I welcome the feedback and suggestions. Please keep it positive though, there are plenty of other sites out there where you can berate others and get your aggressions out, please treat this as a positive learning environment.
-Jeremy