I was always very interested around how computers worked and as a kid I was given a VTech Pre Computer 1000 that was this kids computer that thought you how to code. I remember coding it to sing Little Brown Jug and I was delighted with myself. Many years passed and I had a hankering to design a website as I had a business idea that I wanted to come to life. I learned HTML and CSS and got quite good at it. I used a website called Treehouse to leann these skills because I believed with Youtube , I wasn't getting to do workshops and I found these helpful. I got so far in Javascript until I found it a bit complicated after a while especially in the area of functions and this. statements. I had spent quite a bit of time on these three sections of programming and I liked it. I don't know what made me stop but I think I remember being pissed off with the teacher on Treehouse starting off really simply and then skipping over the bits and not explaining the bits I found difficult. Some of the teachers on the website I found were so qualified at Computer Science that they could not explain the code in laymens terms or to normallys like myself. I left a couple of angry comments on some of the lessons and that was the end of coding for me. I tried my hand at Python and a couple of more programs but then I moved to Germany and started living my life and going out having a good time and the like.
Recently I had another amazing idea for an app. At least I think its amazing. So amazing that I can't tell anyone about it for risk of them stealing the idea and there will be films about it in the future. With the dawn of AI, I used some of my old coding knowledge to put together a website. The thing about ChatGPT, it is only as good as its prompts so asking it to do the right things regarding software development is the key. In my opinion software developers will be in even more demand from before as they repair websites build by AI with dodgy prompts. The new dawn of software developers will be more overseeing code than actually typing code. With this in mind and Android Studio to conquer I decided to start again and learn the Android Language that is Java and Kotlin. The tools I learned from Javascript were helpful as everything is the same just with different syntax and keywords. Conditionals, loops , arrays. They all do the same job. This time around though I wanted to broaden my knowledge base and have a much more robust skillset when it comes to my knowledge. I started up my Treehouse account but I am finding Youtube videos a whole lot better. Different people are better at certain programs. I find Alex Lee's tutorials on Java excellent where the Treehouse Java tutorial is more complicated. However I found the Treehouse Git Tutorial excellent where as Youtubers were lacking in this. I found this Java roadmap on what to learn first and it is really helping me.
The only problem is I will have to learn bloody Java.
If I don't understand one section , such as arrays, I go to a different video and learn from them and keep on at it until I finally get it into my head. It is true that you need 10,000 hours at something before you can get good at it. 8 years ago I would have thrown the computer out the window but now I am finding I am more patient with challenges now and I am starting to enjoy finding a bug in the code.
From there I came across a course called CS50. A Harvard intense training course no doubt for people who want a broad knowledge and a foundation to build on. And it is free to do. The Harvard lecturer is a guy called John Malan and I have actually never seen a lecturer like him in my life. The amount of information that he gives in his lectures is unbelievable and it makes you want to learn more. Now each lecture is 2 hours long. But I learnt more in 1 of his lectures in 2 hours than I did in a year looking at other content. He just covers everything. I was so impressed with John that I had to look him up. He is the only lecturer I have seen that had to wipe his brow a few times with a towel because he is giving it everything up on stage. What also interested me was how fast his brain processes the information and his output is very fast just like a computer. You can watch his first lecture called Scratch below.
This lecture is the first CS50 class of 2023. There were 1 million people watching this after CS50 is after exploding appartently.
The first lecture gets you playing the MIT kids coding beginners game Scratch
Lecture 2 is all about the C programming Language.
Most languages run from C so it is an excellent foundation to build on. From there all the other programs are a piece of cake. It is just C is very hard so if you can overcome this then the rest will be easier. You can take part in the course yourself here . I am going onto Lecture 3 now after covering C. I spent some time on the text editor VS Code to get used to the language and just messing around with the code. I have been given an exercise to complete and hand in so I am busy working at this at the moment but it has given me a new lease of life with programming and when the kids go to bed the VS code comes out. Beats watching TV all night in my opinion. I will update you how I am doing in CS50 as it is meant to be the Bootcamp of all bootcamps when it comes to computers but I would not expect anything less from Harvard. Their excellent lecturers are a breath of fresh air away from the nerdy guy speaking in code himself. John started off studying politics at Harvard and stumbled upon Computer Science so his lectures come across at someone who knows his stuff and is intelligent enough to explain complicated tasks to people like me who may need a bit of time to process the information.
Even if you have a qualification in a field of Computing, people are saying the course is worth it and you will learn something from it. For me though it is the perfect path to take as I try to negotiate my way through understanding code and becoming capable in a language to solve any problem. Learning Git has opened my eyes up on the open source world and I am excited by it. I know I said it before but I think I am going to stick with this and see it out. Someone described learning to code as drinking water from a fire hydrant. I say I have to agree with this but if you keep at it and keep at it. I'm a stubborn git so I'm not going to let it get the better of me again and maybe some day in the distant future I will have that app I want to create but for now it is on the backburner.
