Start Over Coder

Start Over Coder

By Start Over CoderTechnology
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Start Over Coder episodes

  • 034: How To Get Unstuck When You’re Learning To Code

    Getting stuck when you’re learning to code on your own can be FRUSTRATING!! Here are some tips on how to get help.

    TIP #1 - Google

    TIP #2 - Rubber Duck It

    TIP #3 - Slack Communities

    TIP #4 - FreeCodeCamp Message Boards

    TIP #5 - StackOverflow, Reddit, etc.

    TIP #6 - Revisit What You’ve Already Learned

    TIP #7 - Take a break!

    TIP #8 - Join A Group

    TIP #9 - Pay For Help


    This episode was originally published 19 September, 2017.

    15 min
  • 033: Why & How To Code Every Day

    This week I saw just how beneficial it is to practice every day, and more importantly, to practice well. How can we apply this to learning to code?

    After months of dillydallying around the piano I recently decided to rededicate myself and practice just 15 minutes a day to keep up the minimal skill I had earned through lots of practice. In 5 days I learned the majority of a song I’d been “learning” for the previous 4 months! This showed me just how productive it can be to not only make a daily practice habit, but also to be focused and targeted in that practice.

    So how can we apply this to learning to code?

    First of all, code every day. Forget less in between sessions and keep the skills you pick up along the way fresh in your mind. This is not new advice, but it’s important!

    Equally important (maybe more so) is being specific about what you want to take away from each learning session. In a way, I’m still figuring out what this means for myself, but here are some of the key ideas I’ve been focusing on:

    1. When you’re first learning, write code out as much as possible (instead of copying & pasting), even if it’s something you’ve written many times before. Doing so will ensure you know what you’re doing rather than relying on application or keyboard shortcuts.
    2. Work and re-work code you’ve written in different ways. You’ll learn different ways to go about accomplishing the same thing, and will very likely find ways to optimize your code as well.
    3. Build small proofs of concept for bits of code that you’re writing, and then practice working them into bigger projects. Really study the smaller pieces so you have a better understanding of the whole.
    4. Schedule your learning time to make sure you get it in each day. At the end of each session, plan what you’ll work on the next day. These actions set you up for productive, daily sessions.
    5. Keep distractions to zero while you’re working, and focus on one part of your code in each session.
    6. Always take the time to study the code you’re writing–especially if you’re taking inspiration from other people’s code. Make sure you understand how it works before moving on to the next thing.


      7. This episode was originally published 12 September, 2017.

      19 min
    7. 032: How To Host A Website (Part 2)

      Picking up from last week, this episode shares some of the options you can try for hosting a full blown web app, so you can show off your work when you’re learning to code.

      If you missed last week’s episode which was all about how to host a static website, go back and listen to episode 31. Today we’re talking about hosting applications with dynamic content, i.e. you need a database and have written the backend code.

      To review the basics, you will need a domain name (most of the time!) and web hosting to have a website–go back and listen to episode 31 to hear more about these. To host an app you will also need a database server, and the good news is that you can usually get the hosting bundled in with this. But you will almost always need to buy the domain separately.

      Here’s the overview of services I talk about in this episode (this is not a comprehensive list, just my experience!!):

      Heroku

      • Heroku link
      • My #1 recommendation for small scale apps & proofs of concept
      • It’s free! You can host up to 5 free apps on Heroku.
      • You interact with Heroku from the Heroku command line, but don’t be scared off by this…they’ve got great tutorials and documentation.
      • You can also link Heroku to your GitHub master branch for automatic, continuous deployment.
      • You get a nice domain name, or can create your own: your-app-name.herokuapp.com
      • You can get a database server for free, and lots of other services as well (both paid and free). Look in the ‘add-ons’ section.
      • Be aware if you want to scale up: you can get quality service for lower prices with other service providers once you need to leave the Heroku free tier.

        • Amazon Web Services

        • AWS link
        • Works for static sites, works for more complicated sites too
        • To host an app you’ll use EC2 (web server), S3 (file storage), and RDS (relational database server) or DynamoDB (NoSQL database server).
        • All of these services can be used for FREE for 12 months or more, and after that they’re still massively inexpensive for simple, low-traffic demo apps.
        • There’s a steep learning curve for using Amazon Web Services, and also for getting all the services to work with each other correctly. Personally, I think it pays off in the long run.
        • You do need your own domain name when using AWS. You can get one through Route 53 on AWS, or any domain registrar.
        • Unfortunately, you do need a credit card to sign up for AWS. If you’re not in the US, be wary of any fees your card company may charge–AWS services are billed in US dollars.

          • Other Services

          • Azure
          • Digital Ocean
          • Google
          • Read this blog post for further comparison on these!


            • This episode was originally published 5 September, 2017.

            17 min
          • 031: How To Host A Website (Part 1)

            Once you’ve learned a bit of code, you want to show it off! Here are some of the options you can try for hosting a static website.

            In part 1 of 2 we’re talking about hosting static websites, or sites that don’t require any database connection or dynamic content. You might want to buy your own domain name (ex: yourname.com) which is where people will find your website. Separately, you will need website hosting, a service which stores your webpage files on a server and sends them to users when they visit your domain.

            There are many companies eager to sell you a domain name and/or their hosting services. Sometimes you can bundle the two and get some great discounts!

            My Approach

            So which should you choose? My approach is always based on my goals for the site I’m building at the time. Do I want it to be ready quickly, do I want it to be inexpensive, or do I want it to be high quality (ideally with my own code)? You can only get 2 out of 3 at a time!

            For fast & quality, Squarespace is certainly the one to pick, but I’ll pay more than what I’d like. For cheap & quality (well, as good quality as I’m capable of writing), it’s AWS…but the tradeoff is the time it will take me to write my code, AND the time to figure out the monster that is AWS!

            The next thing I ask myself is what are the goals for this project. If it’s something I know I’ll keep up long term, I’ll take the time to set things up properly on AWS and build it myself from scratch. On the other hand if it’s something I’m just trying out, I might start on Wordpress.org (with a steeply discounted hosting plan) just to get something up quickly and see whether I’ll actually stick with it. Perfect example–startovercoder.com!

            Next question–are there any deals to be had? Even though I prefer AWS, sometimes it’s worth it to use another service in the first year to take advantage of their promotions. For example, to buy the Start Over Coder domain on AWS it would be $12 for the domain, plus the monthly hosting and storage costs. Instead I used a registrar which offered a free domain and 12 months of hosting for $11.92! At the end of the year it’s just a matter of moving everything over to AWS (another great skill to learn!).

            Visit domcomp.com to compare the latest prices & services from many registrars at once.

            Final question: I ask myself what I want to learn by building my website. Personally, I’m not interested in learning PHP (not for now at least) so I’m fine to use a mediocre-looking Wordpress theme rather than building my own or doing a lot of customizations. On the other hand, having a level of comfort with AWS will be a great asset (I think!) when it comes to looking for jobs, so I accept the pain & time that will go into figuring it out.


            This episode was originally published 31 August, 2017.

            24 min
          • 030: Building A Web App From Scratch With A Group

            Recently completed my first web app as part of a group workshop and I learned a lot! Here are the key steps and biggest takeaways from the experience.

            Coming Up With App Ideas
            • Set a constraint or goal to help narrow down ideas. Pick one problem to solve, and then think about many ways to solve it.
            • Do a lot of brainstorming–everything goes on the list!
            • Research each idea to determine what you need to do technically to build it. Pay special attention to APIs, data sources, and other aspects which may take a lot of work to integrate.
              • Picking An App Idea To Build
              • Set a deadline for when you want to complete a minimum viable product, and then pick an idea that is feasible within that time limit.
              • Pick an idea that stretches your learning, but isn’t so advanced that it will discourage you from finishing.
              • If you know very little about the tech stack, do a bit of extra research to find out how much documentation there is and how many tutorials exist online…if you don’t have resources to go to when you get stuck, it will prove to be very difficult!
                • Building the App

                There will be a lot you will come against that you can’t even imagine ahead of time, but that’s the fun of it! Here are some things which can help guide the process despite this:

                • Wireframing: Sketch, Invision, Origami, Google Docs, or even just pen & paper will give you a map to follow during the project.
                • Build the function before building the design, as existing design can limit the code you write.
                • Set some user questions at the beginning to make sure you’re hitting all the key needs when building the app.
                  • Collaboration

                  Working with a group has both benefits and challenges. Here are some things which can make the experience work well:

                  • Git for version control & GitHub for collaboration. Check out episode 14 of this podcast to learn some basics. Use branches so that each person is working on different parts of the code.
                  • You can also use GitHub’s issues and projects to keep track of what needs to be worked on, what’s in progress, and what’s been completed.
                  • Meet with the group to get everyone on the same page as far as expectations go. If some people have more/less time to work on the project, or more/less skills in certain areas, it’s helpful to know in advance. Be honest!
                  • Ask questions about the code other people write to learn even more.
                    • “Finishing” The App
                    • If you identified some user questions at the beginning to determine what you would be happy with as a minimum viable product, make this your goal for “finishing.” There will always be something else to do or other improvements to make, but focus on shipping something stable as an initial goal.
                    • Deployment is the final hurdle which may take more effort than anticipated. Don’t let this derail the project. Go for a simple service like Heroku if it helps.
                    • Send the live link to some friends for user testing. They may find some things you missed while you were deep in the code.


                      • This episode was originally published 22 August, 2017.

                      29 min
                    • 029: The Web Developer Bootcamp [Online Course Review]

                      Udemy’s Web Developer Bootcamp is a fantastic course I can highly recommend. In this episode I share the best & worst parts, and some tips to get the most out of it.

                      To check out the full description of Colt Steele’s course or to sign up, view the course on Udemy.

                      Show Links
                      • Paper.js - JavaScript animations library
                      • Howler.js - JavaScript library for playing sounds
                      • Colt Steele’s MySQL course


                        • This episode was originally published 15 August, 2017.

                        31 min
                      • 027: The Painful Parts of Programming

                        FRUSTRATION!!! This week I share the painful experience of getting stuck while coding. And some helpful tips to get through it!

                        I’m in the process of building my first web app from scratch and adding the login feature proved to be massively difficult. No matter what I tried, no matter what tips I got, I just couldn’t get it working. While it’s not the first time I got stuck coding something, it definitely held out the longest, leading me to bang my head against more walls than I’d like.

                        But in the end I found some tips to get through it (be sure to check out last week's episode which inspired all of them!:

                        1. Don’t get frustrated!
                        2. If you do, step away from the code and refresh your brain.
                        3. Break the problem into smaller pieces: take the part you can’t solve and write it as standalone code. Then it should be easier to fit into the bigger piece.
                        4. If you use other people’s code, be sure to take the time to learn how it works, otherwise it’s just a band-aid.
                        5. When things get tough, just stick with it…
                        6. …but ask for help (ideally well before getting worked up to tears)!


                          7. This episode was originally published 1 August, 2017.

                          18 min

                        About Start Over Coder

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                        A podcast about learning to be a web developer and pursuing financial independence.