Over the past three weeks, I took the time to rethink how I am approaching learning web development. I stopped taking the Adobe Illustrator course on Treehouse for now because I found a website called The Odin Project. The Odin Project is an open source website which teaches you how to become a web developer. I will still be using Treehouse, because the instruction there is fantastic, but I will be using it as an aid while going through The Odin Project's framework, which, while having less videos available overall, mirrors the EXACT learning path I set for myself in regards to becoming a web dev.
This is the path I had come up with and was using Treehouse to accomplish, and this is also the path which The Odin Project chose to go with in teaching web development:
1. Introduction to Web Development.
2. Web Development 101
3. Ruby Programming
4. Ruby on Rails
5. HTML5 and CSS3
6. Javascript and jQuery
7. Getting Hired as a Web Developer
Over the course of the last couple of months, I came up with a path almost identical to this. The exception was that I had still not made a choice between Java and Javascript, as far as which was "more" important, but since I was going to learn it after Ruby and ROR, I figured I would get to that choice in due time. I was using Treehouse to complete the rough outline/path I had come up with. However, I was going through the Treehouse Tracks to do so, and the Tracks, which are a collection of courses, as opposed to individually selected courses, while they do delve deeply into many subjects, are not EXACTLY the path that I wish to take to web development. This is in contrast to The Odin Project, which is EXACTLY the path I had come up with.
Treehouse relies heavily on videos, which is great, the videos are very well made, and I have learned HTML and CSS thanks to Treehouse. The Odin Project, on the other hand, uses a mixture of both videos and essays on web development. The videos are pulled from sources all over the web and vary in quality, but the essays are able to go much more in depth than Treehouse can (a good essay is much easier to produce than a good video). Treehouse does not do essays. The Odin Project is an Open Source project, anyone can contribute to it, and by the time you finish the path above, you are supposed to have enough projects under your belt to acquire a position as a web dev.
Also, the Odin Project goes deeply into the job search area, which I have not seen Treehouse delve as much into. That makes a big difference to me, because I want to make sure I have all the tools necessary to secure a position upon my completion of the material presented. Granted, I will still be a junior dev, not an expert by any means, but I am putting in the time, and I want to make sure that my efforts bear fruit. The Odin Project is more tuned towards this end, at this point. So. I will be using both Treehouse and The Odin Project, as both have their strengths, but Treehouse will be used as an aid to the Odin Project Curriculum.
After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to take the plunge and purchased a Macbook Pro (13" screen). It has two years left on the warranty and has 8 mb of ram and a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 processor. Several sources emphasized how Ruby is much easier to develop on a Unix system. Also, at a web development meetup I attended, the devs told me that pretty much all startups use macs, so I may as well become familiar with the Mac environment sooner, rather than later. Previously, I was running a PC with two monitors, so I switche one of the monitors for use with the Macbook, and left the other monitor for continued use on the Windows machine. Here's a screenshot of my current setup:
I'm not the best photographer.
On the left is the Macbook Pro, and the monitor above it is connected to it. The Windows machine and its monitor are on the right. It's a bit cramped, but this works for now, and I do have more desk space I can use if I need to, but for now I'm letting my brother and a friend use the extra desk space in a large room in my home I use for studying (I organize a study/entrepreneurship group that meets at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday, and we usually study or work on businesses about 4 hours a day, at least).
I'm really enjoying this journey...I was messing with the web developer tools earlier and changing my friend's facebook pages on my computer, tricking them into thinking I somehow was able to manipulate their actual Facebook page, hahaha! My study friend says I've now reached the "mischief" phase of web development, haha! I also messed with the javascript in the web dev console, making popups appear on my brother's laptop screen, the popups said, "Who wears short shorts?"
Hahahaha! I love learning. :)
SUMMARY OF CODING SKILLS
Total Treehouse Points: 3,492
Treehouse Points by Subject Matter: HTML 663, CSS 1,599, Design 1,193, Development Tools 7, and Miscellaneous
Treehouse Ranking (%): "You have more total points than 84% of all students."
Badge(s) Earned Today:
Courses Completed:
How to Make a Website
HTML
CSS Foundations
CSS Layout Techniques
Aesthetic Foundations
Design Foundations
Photoshop Foundations
Design Foundations
Photoshop Foundations
Books Read or in Progress:"Head First HTML and CSS," by E. Robson & E. Freeman (In progress, I've read the 37 pg. preface and the first 255 pgs. of actual content, which is the HTML section of the book)
Hours Spent Coding Today: 10
Total Hours Coding: 202
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