La Vie en Code

In this episode, Nicole provides valuable advice for taking notes in a technical field—so you can maximize your information retention while learning!

We learn early on that note-taking can help us retain the information we encounter, but very few people actually know how to take good notes that work for them. I was a terrible note-taker, honestly. I'd often just write everything the teacher said, and totally not even listen to what they were saying. It was madness!

When new coders start out in this industry, it's difficult to know how you should be taking notes—and more importantly, what to even take notes on. Additionally, taking notes as a developer often includes code and diagrams to map out ideas.

Before you get caught up in the same cycle I did, noting absolutely everything you encounter, you should definitely listen to this episode. You might just be introduced to a new way of taking notes that could work for you, and supercharge your education!

As always, I hope this episode will help you in your education and career. 😊

Find the show notes for Episode 38 here!

If you'd have told me 5 years ago that I'd WILLINGLY get involved with public speaking, I'd have laughed my ass off. For the longest time, I avoided, procrastinated, and generally flopped through required presentation material for school.

So what happened? Well, I'm more than happy to tell you in the episode. 🙃

Let's just say that incredible things happen when you find something in life that you truly love and find exciting. Asking for a presentation on anything else just don't hit the same.

I hope that if you've ever considered public speaking, you'll have more questions. I intend on doing another episode in the future actually walking through the application process, but for now, enjoy story time!

Blank screen paralysis is a sucky experience. You're just sitting there, staring at the blank code editor screen, wondering what to do first. Unfortunately, this is a common place where new coders drop off, or choose not to challenge themselves and settle with more comfortable resources.

I have definitely been affected by this problem, because I often didn't have a clear first step. There are other reasons why we freeze up, and I want to help you understand what they are, and how we can work to overcome them together. ❤️

I hope you find this episode helpful for the next time you're not sure where to begin. Sometimes it's right in front of you, and you just need to take the time to find it.

Sharing is particularly important in the tech industry. Yet, so many coders—new and experienced—opt not to share their knowledge. Why is this? If it's fear, what are we afraid of?

In this episode, Nicole talks about some of the reasons we feel too shy to share our code or write a blog post on what we know, and how she's overcoming the urge to stay in a bubble.

Have you been wanting to share what you know, but there's just something stopping you?

Paralyzed and shameful at over the idea of posting your code for everyone to see?

Or perhaps you're already blogging, but it just takes a long time to get out your content?

And what if you don't want to share at all, but you're curious about how to start?

Sharing is incredibly important here, because we all learn from each other. When you learn, you use others' resources, right?. Things move fast here, and for this reason, we need to seriously consider teaching others what we know. It's kind of like our obligation.

I really wanted to take the time to explore what holds us back—particularly myself. Even though I've been blogging on tech topics since I began learning to code, eventually, things became rougher, and I had to ask myself why.

I hope this episode helps you to understand why sharing matters, what you can share, and how to get past the fears and anxieties that may be keeping you from speaking up and putting yourself out there!

Episode notes

Beta enrollment for my newest course, Newbie Coder Problem Solving School, ends on February 29, 2020! Initial feedback I'm receiving tells me that it's a game-changer for people looking to push through their code challenges and debugging with greater confidence.

Purchasing the beta will provide you text-based version of the course. The video-based version will be released on March 27, 2020. You'll receive access to the video-based content then, as well as all future updates to the content itself.

The beta text-based version is $97 through February 29th, after which the course will be entirely unavailable for purchase until March 27. And you should enroll NOW, because the price will be going up to $249 once the video-based version is available!

Learn more about the course here!

Enroll in the beta for $97!

Perfectionism isn't often discussed in its less favorable light, but it affects so many people learning to code (and just in life!)

In this episode, I discuss my own battle with perfectionism, how it's affected my life and work, and offer some tips to overcome it.

When you're first learning to code, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the veritable cornucopia of build tool options. Why are there so many? What do they do? What problems do they solve?

In this episode, we (not-too-deep) dive into Build Tools—specifically, Package Managers, Task Runners, and Module Loaders and Bundlers.

Learn what each of these tool types do, and briefly compare the different tools themselves. By the end of this episode, you'll learn the problems that they solve, and how to make your life easier by applying them to your development workflow.

Part 3 of 4, Nicole dissects the Web Developer Roadmap's Back-End section, bringing valuable context to the steps recommended for students seeking a career using Back-End technologies.

The Web Developer Roadmap by Kamran Ahmed (@kamranahmedse) has become a powerful resource for new self-taught web developers—especially those looking to change careers. But, what do all of these terms even mean? Why are they important? What happens if you don't know them?

What do you need to know in order to work in the web development industry? Where should you start, in terms of really understanding the concepts now, and down the road? What do all these weird-sounding terms mean??

In this series, we'll be pulling apart Kamran Ahmed's Web Developer Roadmap to help you visualize and contextualize your self-education journey. By the end of this series, listeners will understand the different subsets of web development, and what kinds of tools and resources you'll need to learn in order to get a job. If you're a new self-taught web developer, you'll definitely want to tune in!

The Web Developer Roadmap by Kamran Ahmed (@kamranahmedse) has become a powerful resource for new self-taught web developers—especially those looking to change careers. Having a guide for your education certainly helps! But, what do all of these terms even mean? Why are they important? What happens if you don't know them?

In the first week of a 4-part series, Nicole dissects the Front-End portion of the Web Developer Roadmap, explaining:

• The problems that each concepts solve for web developers
• Why you'll need to know them
• And how they relate to other concepts of web development

Don't worry, there are no specific programming languages mentioned in this episode! Just sweet, sweet context, so you can get on with your education and build confidence.

For episode links and additional resources (including The Web Developer Roadmap itself), visit the episode page at http://www.lavieencode.net/31.

The Web Developer Roadmap by Kamran Ahmed (@kamranahmedse) has become a powerful resource for new self-taught web developers—especially those looking to change careers. Having a guide for your education certainly helps! But, what do all of these terms even mean? Why are they important? What happens if you don't know them?

In the first week of a 4-part series, Nicole dissects the first section of the Web Developer Roadmap (labeled "Required for any path"), explaining:

• The problems that each concepts solve for web developers
• Why you'll need to know them
• And how they relate to other concepts of web development

Don't worry, there are no specific programming languages mentioned in this episode! Just sweet, sweet context, so you can get on with your education and build confidence. :)

For episode links and additional resources (including The Web Developer Roadmap itself), visit the episode page at http://www.lavieencode.net/30.

In this episode, you'll learn about problem solving, and how you can approach code challenges using a 7-step approach that will give you enough information to confidently solve your problems.

Many students overlook these crucial steps, or blow past them to begin coding—which really doesn't help them once they hit a wall and are unsure how to proceed.

So, if this sounds like an area where you could use some work, have a listen and become a more confident, competent problem solver in just half an hour!

For show notes and links, visit the La Vie en Code Podcast episode page at http://www.lavieencode.net/29.