Teaching myself to code: the journey and lessons learned

Teaching myself to code

Neha Batra @nerdneha

April 2015

We’re from all over, you’re not alone

Energy Consultant

Software Engineer

Floored, Inc.

Textile Designer

Front-end Web

Developer

Photoshelter

Materials Science

Software Engineer

Venmo

Community Organizer

Content Intelligence

Research Engineer

Tumblr

History & Sales

Marketing

Developer

Avaaz

Economics, Teaching

Software Engineer,

Cofounder, Teacher

Telegraph Academy

Physics

Data Engineer

Rent the Runway

Operations Research &

Math

Data Science

Mimi Hearing

Technologies GmbH

https://www.linkedin.com/company/5188510?trk=prof-exp-company-name

How I taught myself how to code

Energy Consulting

Recurse Center

1st Soft Eng Job

Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.

2 years

3 months

9 months

11 months


Energy Consulting

1st Soft Eng Job


(the professional version that gives you ZER0 context)

(this looks WAYYY TOO EASY)

Recurse Center

3 months

9 months

2 years

11 months


Energy Consulting

1st Soft Eng Job1st Soft Eng Job

Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.Intro to Logic + Intro to CS [scheme] (9th grade via IMACS)AP Comp Sci A (11th grade)Intro to Python (MIT, not reqd.)Got Mechanical Eng degree

Recurse Center

3 months

9 months

2 years

11 months


Energy Consulting


Recurse Center

6 months:Quit 1st jobApplied to Recurse Center 2x (rejected)Used MOOCs/meetups to learnFirst hello world websiteGot into RC on 3rd try

3 months

9 months

2 years

11 months



Energy Consulting

Recurse Center


3 months

9 months

2 years

11 months

Full-stack Engineer at Floored, Inc.6 months:Quit 1st jobApplied to Recurse Center 2x (rejected)Used MOOCs/meetups to learnFirst hello world websiteGot into RC on 3rd try


Specific Resources:

- Codecademy JavaScript

- Girl Develop It: Android Course (small fee, several in-person classes)

- Udacity - CS101 - Intro to Programming

(quit job)

- Coursera course on Scala

- Udacity - Algorithms

- MongoDB - Intro to MongoDB

- Heroku tutorial on hello world

- Vim tutorial

- Github tutorial

(recurse center)

(this is detailed in a blog post if you want more info: nerdneha.tumblr.com)


Energy Consulting


Recurse Center

1.5 months:Applied like everywhereEmailed like everyoneBloggedmade a shitty websiteGot an internship!!

3 months

9 months

2 years


11 months

Lessons Learned

1. Forward progress is key

2. Follow your curiosity

3. It takes initiative

4. It’s not you, it’s hard

5. Open source your journey


I thought once I took a class or two,

then things would be….

I thought at least putting “hello world”

on a website would be….

It was NOT...

Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey


For me, was a lot of this….



● do what keeps you motivated

● stop what makes you unhappy



Specific Resources:




(quit job)





- Vim tutorial

- Github tutorial

(recurse center)



Specific Resources:




(quit job)





- Vim tutorial

- Github tutorial

(recurse center)

not my style

not my style

not my style



Specific Resources:




(quit job)





- Vim tutorial

- Github tutorial

(recurse center)

not my style

not my style

not my style

now we’re talking

(I didn’t finish any of them!)

(You don’t have to!!!)



● do what keeps you motivated

● stop what makes you unhappy

I also:

● kept network of positive friends

● got programmer friends to spend time with me/my code

● met others going through my struggle

● figured out my motivating environment (cafes)

● allowed myself days off

● celebrated everything obnoxiouslyForward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey


● scratch the itch

● break to explore a new topic

● rabbit holes are okay! always something to learn


explore the depth, think of it as an investment for the

future


● temptation: learn first, ask after

● fear: wasting others’ time

● skewed reality: “this is a stupid question”

RESULT: you shoot yourself down before you give

yourself a chance to learn


advice:

● let others help you

● pair up (pair programming ftw!!)

● get your code reviewed

● coding schools/programs are great environment

● go to meetups!! many meetups have office hours



advice:

● let others help you

● pair up (pair programming ftw!!)

● get your code reviewed

● coding schools/programs are great environment

● go to meetups!! many meetups have office hours



see what I did there? let others HELP YOU. nothing

better than being asked a question you know the

answer to. everyone wins!!

my mental strategies:

● allow yourself 6 month “stupid questions allowed” period

● only way to learn is to ask



if someone gives you shit, it’s a reflection on them,

not you.

don’t let them make you feel bad for asking! you’re

taking charge. do what you gotta do.

just making first “hello world” -- 2 learning curves??

o python

o vim



just making first “hello world” -- 5 learning curves?!?!

o python

o vim

o bottle framework

o html



just making first “hello world” -- so many learning curves!!

o python

o vim

o bottle framework

o html

o github

o heroku

o domain


7 LEARNING CURVES?!?!

not to mention algorithms, context

changes, translating brainwaves,

googling for forever...



● so many learning curves!!

● people forget how hard it was

● reflect to help you realize that you can make that

progress

● read/learn about imposter syndrome

o if you feel like you’re the dumbest one in the room

and don’t belong, you’re not alone!!!



● so many learning curves!!

● people forget how hard it was

● reflect to help you realize that you can make that

progress

● read/learn about imposter syndrome

o if you feel like you’re the dumbest one in the room

and don’t belong, you’re not alone!!!

my personal phrase to help me through this:

“you’re not stupid, you just don’t know it yet”Forward progress is key | Follow your curiosity | It takes initiative | It’s not you it’s hard | Open source your journey


Make yourself unique. Own your individuality. Have an

opinion

● website

● github

● blog

● twitter




opinion

● website

● github

● blog

● twitter

www.nehalita.com




opinion

● website

● github

● blog

● twitter

nerdneha.tumblr.com




opinion

● website

● github

● blog

● twitter


Blog ideas:

● cool things you learned from event

● clarify existing instructions

● show how you did something differently

● explain a concept in your own words

● talk about what is SO COOL

● talk about what frustrates you

● make random lists

o my specialty: compile advice and blog it

● reblog/retweet someone else’s awesome



Lessons Learned






Go kick some ass

@nerdneha

Teaching myself to code: the journey and lessons learned

Software

teachingsoftware engineer

logic intro

key follow

rejectedused moocsmeetups

shitty websitegot

cs scheme

cs degrees

hardopen source