While looking around on hiveprojects.io the other day I stumbled upon a project called DeLOG (created by @pishio). This is awesome and I can totally use this in my own project!
I have a good handle on HTML and CSS. I’d even go so far to say that I know the basics with vanilla JS. Hence I go assuming, “It’s no matter, I should be able to just clone the repo, edit a few lines of html, create a subdomain for my website, and voila I have a blog.”
Well, it didn’t work out like that. Since there is nothing of substance in the readme, I had to figure out why things didn’t work like I anticipated. “Maybe, I should just quit?” I thought. “Nobody even knows I started, it’s the perfect exit.”
Oh yeah, DUN DUN DUNN ChatGPT to the rescue. AI has been making a lot of different topics that interest me more accessible by removing a lot of the thinking involved. But that’s a topic for future me to worry about writing down.
I start plugging different parts of the code into ChatGPT and it reveals that I am working with a React project. So I ask how to initialize the project and compile the code. It gives me a set of instructions that I confirm on google and then follow. It seems to work.
However, when I click on the links to a post or to a user profile I am presented with “There’s nothing here!”. The official delog.io page doesn’t seem to have this same issue.
I try various prompts attempting to get it to solve this issue for me. This might be a problem more suited for GPT-3, ChatGPT’s bigger smarter brother. “No No No. I can do this.”
So anyways, here I am, down the rabbit hole. I have been watching Freecodecamp's React tutorial on Scrimba and so far I am well distracted from my original goal and moving along nicely at a decent pace. Due to my self-diagnosed ADD doing what it does I decided at 17% of the way in that I need to start a different tutorial.
Working with React has me using the command prompt more than usual and more regular use of the command prompt has highlighted how little I know about using command prompt. I began and almost immediately stopped a tutorial on command prompt only to realize I was wasting my time and should be learning PowerShell. “Yeah, I realize it’s crazy that I somehow got here, but this is more story”
Anyways, I made it about 2 hours into a 6 hour tutorial from the creator of PowerShell before deciding I needed to do something different. I wound up watching tv and being generally unproductive with the rest of the day.
This morning I woke up inspired to start the React tutorials again. Since I am not screwing around this time I decided that I should probably brush up on my vanilla JavaScript first. Thinking back, I don’t believe I ever actually finished those tutorials either. Dammit! This time will be different. Right?
So I have essentially created a curriculum for myself.
Right now this goal seems pretty lofty and almost certainly overkill for my end goal. I keep telling myself I am basically learning JavaScript the whole way down and the hardest part is probably step 1 and step 5. I am putting this out there publicly as an attempt to hold myself to account. I am putting to test the theory that if more people know this is what I want to be up to then perhaps the social stigma of being a complacent loser will motivate me.
Yada yada, blah blah blah. I’m going to get started now.
