Ruby Co-Learning Philip Maessoumi kiyumars.com What I wish I had known Ruby Co-Learning Philip Maessoumi kiyumars.com

You are smart enough -Learning web dev is frustrating -”I am not an engineer, never studied comp sci” -You will always feel this way, no matter how much you learn -You don't have to be that smart for most web dev work -You need to learn much technical stuff, like a carpenter -If you want to learn, you need to work through fearing embarrasment

Use the correct tutorials -More open-source tools and free documentation than in any other field. -Learn what a tool can do, what the conventional methods are -Too many resources, much of it bad. -Bad resources turn insecure beginners off -Curse of knowledge. Experts can't explain their field to beginners well. -Don't start reading specific tutorials, pick a holistic web dev tutorial -For Rails. Michael Hartl's free HTML tutorial -Includes git, github, TDD -Explains it in an understandable way

Make your own apps -Tutorials give you false confidence -You don't know web dev until you make your own apps -Pick a simple, even fun projects, and employ what you've learned -Not important if you code is hacky, it will improve with every project -If you know the conventions, the less trouble with hack code

Build a public profile -Reputation and contacts are just as important in this field as others (not just technical knowledge) -Ask friends if they know someone in the company you want to work for -If you can speak publicly, use that to your advantage -Have an active github profile -Have a portfolio of personal projects -Don't do it just for your career. People who try to help others are cool. You want to be friends with them. Especially Ruby people.