Ask HN: 'Idea' guy moving in the right direction?
I'm a little over a year out of college, and my 9-5 is slowly melting my brain. I am kicking myself for not majoring in CS.
My actions are the following: I want to build web apps, in order to hack together a pathetic prototype I have purchased Learn to Program by Chris Pine. It teaches the basics of Ruby, I am then planning on starting Rails with either;
--Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial-- or --Agile Web development with Rails-- Opinions?
I have varying levels of PS, HTML, CSS, SEO experience.
I need to learn some Javascript. Material suggestions?
I seriously considered Python/Django, however the web apps that most closely resemble the itch I'm trying to scratch are hiring Rails developers, so that was the biggest deciding factor as both have great communities and my project is no tech marvel.
To name a few, spare time day dreaming at my 9-5 consists of: Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Four Steps to the Epiphany, Rework, Vinicius Vacanti, HN, Last but certainly not least, my main man PG
I am happy, excited, and most of all, hungry.
I more than welcome any constructive criticism this community may offer.
-J
31 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 81.4 ms ] threadSome advice that worked for me, take your idea, and strip it down to the one function that makes it valuable. Learn how to do that. There's lots of good tutorials online. I never did the tutorials word for word, I just used them to learn functions that would apply to my application. Also, don't be tempted to fall into just copying and pasting code. Learn what it means, write it yourself, tinker with it.
The stuff that BAFFLED me when I looked at it originally makes perfect sense now. It comes to you, don't get stressed out, just take it in steps and you'll be shocked how far you get.
Feel free to email me, I'm in no way some master coder but I know where you're coming from.
Cheers and best of luck!
Go jQuery though, in my opinion. It lets you do what you need to do without actually knowing javascript, in most cases.
I will certainly check out Umbraco, though.
* First of all, good on you for trying to learn how to build stuff.
* "I need to learn some Java. Material suggestions?" --> I'm assuming you mean JavaScript. I've heard good things about http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html, which is free and has an interactive REPL right in the browser as you do the tutorial.
* "I seriously considered Python/Django..." --> personally I think Python is a much easier language than Ruby for beginners. The syntax is cleaner and more readable. The reason you give for using RoR instead is understandable given your lack of experience, but it's not actually valid. You can make exactly the same apps with Rails and Django, and I don't think one is even more conducive to any specific type of app than the other. I've also heard bad things about the Rails community, though I haven't verified any of that personally. If I were you I'd spend 30-60 mins on Python and Ruby each, and choose based on which you're more comfortable working with.
Good luck!
I am 1/2 way through Chris Pine's Learn to Program Ruby book. I hear http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index is a good resource for beginners, I will take a look.
Thoughts? Any other tutorials/books you recommend for Python/Django?
The Django tutorial [1] is very impressive - it will take you from the initial steps to a very basic (but working) web application, exposing various Django concepts along the way.
The Django documentation is so good I learned Python from it - I had never used Python before starting to learn Django. The tutorials and docs on the Django site are better than any of the Django books I have looked at so far.
[1] http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/intro/tutorial01/
I'll second mryan's recommendation for the Django docs, though.
Also, I see you're in NY. I am too. Shoot me an email if you want to grab coffee some time.
Turned out there weren't any language basics in there that I didn't already know, but I heartily recommend the book to anybody looking for a quick start into programming.
The Google tutorial on Python. [1] Python by Osmosis screencasts [2] Django Book online. [3] ProudN00b is a great blog on a similar path from little coding experience to Python + Django [4]
[1] http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/int... [2] http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanmshea [3] http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/ [4] http://www.proudn00b.com/archive
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...
Good luck!
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en/javascript
Despite your comment on Rails hiring, I've found that the larger Python community runs better events. Everything you learn about CS, programming, software engineering, web performance, etc. will hold.
Also, even if it seems illogical for some reason, nobody uses just one thing. The advantages that certain languages and toolkits hold over others are a wash unless you're doing something special, and you already recognize that you're not. You'll pick up much more as time goes on, and you'll never stop.
I'm going to play around with Python for the rest of the week and then decide. It really doesn't matter to me much, I have no preference... I'm just eager to pick one and start prototyping.
There are fundamentals courses at General Assembly, and it's a good environment.
use redmine, wikis, SCM, etc, and find the vibrant community you most resonate with. for me it was the django/python communities. get creative and have fun, that is also important.
The questions that crosses my mind are:
Should we do everything by ourselves or should we try to find partership?
I have been looking for partnership but it's very complicated. Everyone has it's own ideas and no one wants to be part on someone's else idea. I still couldn't figure out a way to solve this. Maybe it's even an insight for an idea.
What I'm doing is trying to learn to do by myself. I'm taking the easy path, using frameworks and everything that helps.
At the moment I'm trying to put my ideas together with: jquery, wordpress, some PHP basically for the wordpress integration and hacks, and APIs. And I'm aware I should start with some server side. I would go for the RoR.
Just sharing my toughts here. I'd appreciate any comment on that.
Development has been very slow, and I'm really trying to adhere to MVP and Lean Startup practices. Therefore, I'm going to take the time to learn how to hack some garbage together with hopes of attracting some talent.
I wish you the best, stay motivated!
This post was very PRO python/django... other posts I've searched on HN have been pro Ruby/Rails. The best piece of advice I've gotten is to try both, I burned down 1/2 the entry rails book I ordered... Loved it(or maybe I was just excited to create some extreme novice terminal program telling me how many characters are in my full name). Tonight I'm going to attack the Learnpythonthehardway tutorial and then decide.
Do you feel like you're coming along quickly? Enjoying yourself thus far? PS I plan on blogging about this endeavor.