Start Over Coder

There’s a lot involved to get up and running with a new dev environment—it can be pretty troublesome in fact! After working on one machine for a while, it’s easy to forget (or take for granted) all of the software and helper tools you’ve installed slowly over time. But as soon as you want to get coding on a new machine, those tools are quickly appreciated!

Here are some of the steps I took to be able to keep coding while traveling with a temp laptop, and what I plan to do going forward to make it easier next time around:

This episode was originally published 17 April, 2018.

It’s another pair of discoveries this week! The website Financial Toolbelt has some great calculators if you want to start getting to know your personal finances. And the Second Career Devs podcast is a must for any and all Start Over Coders!

This episode was originally published 10 April, 2018.

Introduction overload! There are plenty of good introductory workshops, blog posts, and articles out there. But is it too much of a good thing? Recently I’ve felt like the sheer number of articles and events have been taking away from my efforts to become a developer.

In this episode I talk about the good & bad aspects of introductory resources, and some tips about how to figure out which ones are worth spending time on.

This episode was originally published 3 April, 2018.

Figma is a great prototyping tool I’ve been experimenting with this week. It’s a software tool available for Mac or PC, and they also have a great web interface that allows you to collaborate on designs live (!) with other people.

I’ve been using it to mock up a redesign for the Start Over Coder website, and also for a new web project I’ve started for someone else. Bottom line, I can highly recommend Figma for creating UI mockups and expect I will be using it for time to come!

This episode was originally published 27 March, 2018.

This week’s episode it about my first attempts at learning the React framework…it was a mixed bag but here are my first impressions:

Bottom line: I don’t think I’ve hit the pain points yet that React can solve. Also, using React requires a pretty solid foundation on ES6 methods which I could use some brushing up on. There are a few more pluses and minuses I discuss in the episode, so give it a listen! And if you have any suggested resources for learning React please share 😄

This episode was originally published 20 March, 2018.

It’s been a year since I started this podcast! But I’m still not earning money as a developer. Does it really have to take over a year to learn enough to become a working programmer?

Short answer: no, I really don’t think so!

But for me, a few things along the way have slowed down my progress. You can get the full story by listening to this episode, but to recap what I think I’d do differently to speed the transition up a bit:

Despite my (I think) slow timeline so far, I’m still excited by what’s still to come and look forward to sharing more updates soon!

This episode was originally published 13 March, 2018.

It’s the last episode (for now!) in the How I FI series and today I’m talking about my top 10 actions for getting myself to financial independence. To recap:

This episode was originally published 6 March, 2018.

Continuing on with a favorite topic of mine—financial independence! In last week's episode I shared a bit about what my mindset around personal finances was before I discovered the concept of FI. Tl;dr: the more I earned, the more I spent, and I couldn’t imagine a reality where things would or could be different. I’m so glad I learned that there is a better way!

For me, finding that better way came in three parts: 1) getting introduced to the idea & basic concepts of financial independence; 2) applying that information to figure out my current FI status; and 3) making a long term plan to actually work towards FI.

This episode was originally published 27 February, 2018.

Let’s talk about financial independence!

Up until now I’ve shied away from talking about the FI side of this Start Over Coder project. I’ve made so many wrong moves with my own money that it’s like, who am I to talk about the subject with any kind of authority!? Not to mention the fact that I’m years away from seeing the outcomes of my actions…maybe I’m still doing it wrong. Plus it’s just a sensitive topic!

But I do think one of the main reasons why it can feel so sensitive is because people don’t really talk about it, and since FI is a big part of why I started learning to code, I definitely don’t want to hold anything back about that side of things.

So over the next few episodes I’ll share a bit about how I FI, what I’m doing to become financially independent.

But before getting into the specifics, it might be helpful to know a bit of my background to get a sense of what led me to do all of this in the first place. Here’s a quick recap from the podcast (listen for more context!):

I lived with this mindset for years and years, but eventually I realized that this outlook wasn’t working for me. In fact, I was working for it! Literally: working for the bi-weekly paycheck that I needed to keep up the lifestyle I built for myself (not exactly music to my ears).

I’ll share more about what changed, and what changes I made as a result in future episodes in this series. But the biggest change was finding some goals to work towards. Financial independence means having enough income to cover all of your expenses without having to work for that income. Instead, money comes in through savings interest, investment income, businesses that generate income without your personal hours of labor…all of this is often referred to as passive income.

Being financially independent gives you the freedom and flexibility to live life exactly how you want to. For me that involves a lot of travel…long-term travel ideally. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t necessarily mean not working! I actually really like working when it means having interesting projects, solving problems, and working with interesting, dynamic people. Reaching FI means having the freedom to work only when you find work that meets these criteria.

That’s the kind of life I want!

So with these goals in mind, how do you actually do it? I’ve found some ideas, and I’ll talk about them in the next few episodes. Stay tuned!

This episode was originally published 20 February, 2018.

For any new web project, taking the time to PLAN before you CODE is key! Here are some key questions I asked myself before I started coding the new Start Over Coder website. It came down to 7 key questions, which I discuss in this episode.

This episode was originally published 13 February, 2018.