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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.