Freelancing has MANY upsides, but there is one potential downside to freelancing: loneliness.
For some freelance developers, working alone all is day is hard. As humans we need a little social interaction or a little diversion or it can get real dark for us, real fast. But not to worry, we have some suggestions that will let you get a change of scenery, some human on human stimulation (eww!) and all without sacrificing productivity.
Generally speaking in the office world a seven hour workday can be a little flighty with your attention going here and there and putting out fires in other places, plus meetings and just generally not wanting to be there (which is probably one of the reasons you became a freelancer…). However, one of the things about that office life is you get to interact with people, and enjoy coffee breaks and be around hustle and bustle (atmospheric noise), and feel like you’re a part of the environment, which as a human being is very important (if you have a chance read up on the brain patterns and behaviors of people that have been in solitary confinement…just wow!). We are big believers in the highly productive workday being about 4 hours of solid (uninterrupted) work. When you start with that as your foundation, a lot of options then start to open up. “I make it a point to go out for coffees, go out for brunch, go out for breakfast: I get out! That is the short answer.”
Another idea, “I’ve had people work for me, in fact, they’ll have like their messenger app; their friends and their family – they are in constant communication with them.” That one’s a bit of a slippery slope because it could limit your productivity, but there’s this little tidbit, “You take breaks…once every hour or two you go out, you get a coffee or something; go for a walk -this is good for your exercise as well.” Building on that point, you could go to the gym which is another great opportunity to socialize as well as get that body moving so you feel invigorated when you get back to your work.
The VLOG goes into a great detail providing solid examples of how to break up your day and what activities can help make you feel like a part of the human world again. The main thing to remember is that loneliness can be a factor in this line of work but it doesn’t have to be. We’re sure one of the reasons you became a freelancer was to have that freedom and flexibility that is sorely lacking from the office life…here’s the chance to take advantage of it. -Enjoy!
Spending all your time doing code tutorials, is not going to get you to developer-land quickly. You need to get on with it, and start building real projects!
In life there are two different approaches to situations that people generally take. There are ‘preppers’ and there are ‘doers’…and no doubt you’ve come across this in many parts of your life and you’ve chosen to be one or the other, to varying degrees of success, I’m sure, but let’s talk about prepping vs. doing in the context being a coder, programmer, dev, etc, etc.
Be warned there are shameless promos ahead… Now we want to be clear that there is nothing wrong with a certain amount of prep; no one is saying that you should charge head first into the mouth of the beast(as bad-ass as something like that would figuratively be), without knowing what kind of a beast it is, do I have an appropriate weapon? Is there a healer present if things go bad? Prep like that is perfect for most situations (and a good indicator that I’m playing too much DnD), but too much prep: i.e. – what is the optimal whether pattern to attack the beast? Is it best to attack on an empty stomach? Only serves to bog you down and ensure that you never get out of the gate to slay that beast…
“They get caught up in tutorials…the perpetual tutorial doer rather than the project builder… What you’re going to learn…they only real way that you’re going to get good at software development is to actually build projects.” For example in the courses we offer (there it is), we teach the foundations first and foremost, some ‘projects’ afterwards: one or two or even three and then we teach you to get out there and get some work done because there is no better teacher than cold and indifferent ‘experience’.
“It’s all about the basics, if you have your basics, then everything else becomes ‘easy’; your level of production just shoots up. …If you really want to learn, don’t spend nearly as much time as the preppers spend prepping: just do it.”
Check out the VLOG for a way more detailed talk about prepping vs. doing and if you’re on the fence about it, please check out our foundations course, it’s worth the look, we promise you. -Enjoy!
Whether you’re learning CSS or anything in general: give your mind time to assimilate the lessons.
Learning anything can be hard, but learning CSS (which is not a particularly intuitive system) can be just plain daunting. What do you do when you feel like your brain is getting ‘fried’? Take a break, man!
“Learning something new is very much like exercising: lifting weights/working out. Anybody who does regular exercise knows that the rest period in exercising is just as important as the exercising itself.” For example, let’s say you do some heavy weight-lifting and the next day you’re sore…should you go on that same day and lift some more? Contrary to popular ‘bro’ opinion…NO, you should take that day for your body to rest and relax, so that when you go back to lifting, you’re refreshed and ready.
“The exact same thing applies when you’re learning CSS, …etc. You are literally tasking your brain in a physical way to learn, to acquire, to assimilate new knowledge. And because of that it’s going to reach a certain point where it needs a time to process this and assimilate it properly, so that means that you need to rest; so when you come to a point when you just can’t, it can’t sink in anymore: where the information is just becoming more difficult -your brain seems to be resisting the acquisition of new information (it’s becoming strained!) – at that moment, it’s your brain saying, ‘okay, we’ve trained enough, it’s time to take a break to assimilate.”
Check out the VLOG for a very understanding and meaningful deep dive into this subject. Don’t beat yourself up over how long it’s taking to learn either. That will not matter once you’ve attained your goal, and no one out there in the real world cares how long it took for you to learn something – they just want to take advantage of your knowledge. <Shameless Promo> Our courses, whether it’s the freelancing course or the web stack, or any of them are designed in a way that takes advantage of the fact that you’re learning at your own pace. So no worries, take your time, do it right and be good to yourself. -Enjoy!
We make fun of Ruby a lot here: 1. because it’s fun and 2. … …okay, it’s just fun really, but a question did come up recently from an individual who was offered a job working with Ruby on Rails. They come from a PHP – Laravel background and while they don’t know how to use Ruby, per se, their potential employer also offered to pay them while they learn it. So the question was do they take the job knowing that the use of Ruby on Rails has diminished or should they look for something else?
Now Ruby aside, we’d like to answer this question in general terms if you ever find yourself in a situation like this and you’re on the fence… “If you don’t have other work and the job is high paying, why not? …A language or framework does not define you as a programmer… you [just] happen to be using those tools at that particular time”. Now, specifically regarding Ruby jobs: “…it’s not gonna disappear over night and in fact we’ll probably see Ruby development for the next five years, at least, so …you do that for one year, two years, 3 years; what have you…”
Another question we’ve been getting recently is if Java is dead? With Google making the switch to Kotlin for app development and Oracle charging for Java licensing, what will be happening to Java jobs? “Does that mean the whole Java-Android development is going to collapse overnight? Probably not: it won’t, it’ll probably take a couple of years.” That being said, “if you’re writing code for your android app using Java, you’ll be able to transition into Kotlin very, very quickly.”
Check out the VLOG for a more sensible and detailed answers to these questions, and remember, “you cannot lose learning any programming language.” -Enjoy!
What is the best developer computer/laptop in 2019? Should you go with MacOSX, Windows 10 …. or perhaps Linux?
It’s 2019 and you’re just getting started as a developer and you want the best gear that will help you get this job done quickly and effectively, so you look into it and maybe you should get a laptop for on the go work? Mac? PC? Or maybe you’ll just decide to get a ‘tower’ setup and just stay home? But what kind of specs do I need? Where am I? Who’s that guy and why’s he smiling? What’s going on, why is the room spinning?
Easy, young warrior, you don’t have to go pedal to the metal when it comes to getting a computer because, “it really doesn’t make a difference anymore in terms of which laptop you get or which type of computer operating system(OS) you get for software development (I wouldn’t use iOS yet for software development or Android…although I imagine that is going to be coming pretty soon…), …all these computers are pretty good: all very powerful, all very capable”.
Not only that but in terms of how much power you need, “You could use a six year old laptop and be able to do most coding with no problem. Where power comes into play…is compiling, if you have to compile…having a faster computer will allow you to compile much more quickly…”.
So there it is, the VLOG will go into a much more deep dive into what Windows 10 is doing vs. Linux vs. iOS, but it’s all pretty much the same. The only real thing you have to consider when possibly buying a new machine is “… think about your broader use case…if you’re a gamer, you’re probably going to want to be on Windows, as an example”. -Enjoy!
…Or you can spend 25 years writing code to figure these rules out for yourself. Your choice… 😉
We use the ‘royal we‘ a lot here, but the man in charge and captain at the helm is Stef. He’s the guy whose over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, freelancer, and programmer, etc. is presented on a shiny platter of VLOG-ness every week, not to mention the courses offered (links below).
But when we <Stef> release a top 10 programming rules for you to take advantage of, well ya gotta give the devil <also Stef> his due and drop the pretense. And when we say 25 years of experience we don’t just mean showing up, doing your job, drinking coffee and then calling it a day… It’s also hard-knocks, disappointments, and life lessons. Stef doesn’t want a medal or anything, he just wants to save you a little heartache by listening to what he has to say. That way you have more time (and heart) left to do the things you enjoy.
I’m not gonna tell you what the programming rules are, you should watch the VLOG for that, but I’ll give you a hint: if you’ve been watching these VLOGs, even casually or out of sequence, you’ve come across all or most of them. This is just a condensed version of everything: the ‘from concentrate’ orange juice that has not yet been watered down at that small diner that you get breakfast sometimes, you know the one, their home fries are soooo good, but why do they ‘cheap out’ on the OJ?!
Check out the VLOG, it’s worth it. Or, like the subtitle says, spend 25 years figuring it out for yourself. Thanks, Stef (can I have a raise?). -Enjoy!
The tech giant will still support Java but Kotlin is king for Android development.
A quick snippet to be sure, but Google has announced that when it comes to Android development, going forward it will use Kotlin. There will still be support for Java, “…but in terms of documentation, new libraries and so fourth…they said, ‘that’s it! Kotlin is our beast’.”
Without sounding like a broken record (probably a dated reference…), this does go back to what we were saying about a language that is easy to write in, generally gets more use/support and ends up winning out over more verbose/heavy languages. “Kotlin is an easier language to write in, it’s far more productive so…if you are looking for native Android development (and that I think is going to diminish over time…), …then I would lean towards Kotlin.”
The VLOG goes onto mention other casualties in the “simplicity wars” of languages and frameworks, like Apple’s ‘objective C’ being replaced by Swift. It’s worth a look just for the nostalgia factor alone. -Enjoy!
We get comparison questions a lot: Is it better to learn x or y? Is this language even worth learning over that language? The most recent example: Is Java and Kotlin development dead for Android development? When compared to progressive web apps (PWAs), which while more ‘generalized’, can be faster, and can cross-platform(Android & iOS) so you only have to write the app once, it’s easy to see why native tech would not be long for this world.
Our answer is, “I think native dev is going to be important for awhile…[but] there’s nothing to be lost by learning any language, as I said you can’t lose when you learn – even if you don’t end up using the technology.” “…Because what you’re going to see as you advance as a developer…is that all these frameworks, all these languages share many, many, many, many things in common and in fact when you learn your second framework, when you learn your second and third and fourth language (which will eventually happen), learning the new languages and frameworks are going to make you more knowledgeable of all the frameworks and languages you learn.” So, if you learn Java and then you go into PHP, you’re going to find the PHP is “…pretty much like Java. Yeah there’s some differences here and there but whatever; a function’s a function, a method is a method, and arrays are arrays…”.
Check out the VLOG for a more eloquent explanation of this thinking, but essentially, learn as much as you can because most languages have more in common than different, and you can’t lose from learning. -Enjoy!
Another fatality in the war of ‘generalized’ vs. ‘specialized’?
A ZDnet article claims that the R programming language is on the decline, even in the face of a boom in statistical jobs, thanks in large part to devs and programmers using Python as the go-to language. We spoke to Kevin, one of our freelance developers and friendly pirate for confirmation and his reply was, “…yes, that is correct.” – Kevin is a consummate professional and doesn’t like to mix his freelance work with his other ventures in privateering and high-seas chicanery (long walk to get to that joke, but I get paid by the hour…).
Why should this not be surprising? (the R language thing, not the fact we have a pirate working for us). We would imagine, “that the people who love the R programming language will argue (and perhaps quite rightly), that R is better than Python in certain areas.” Well, we’ve said it in past articles and we’ll say it again here, “Open technologies/open languages that have more flexibility for you; easier to work with, they typically win out even over more ‘performante’ technology or languages.”
The VLOG is short but sweet and touches on the importance of the previous statement/lesson. Check it out and while you’re at it, look into our Python course that we offer in the links down below. In the words of Kevin, “Yarrr, there be no regrets here, because regrets are for the dead…”. Good guy, that Kevin…went to his wedding 2 months ago: amazing venue… -Enjoy!
…That’s ‘Positive Mental Attitude’ for ‘Progressive Web Apps’…
We keep on getting requests to cover PWA/RWD’s and because we’re not DJs or that small band at the back of the bar that’s playing ‘only originals’, we’re taking those requests…and 5-6-7-8…
So a PWA is a progressive web app and an RWD is a responsive web design. How are the two related? Well first off, “RWD is basically writing your HTML5 and your CSS code so that the layout of the site will flex and change depending on the size of the screen of the web browser that is visiting your site. So if you have a smartphone or a 75 inch flat panel TV, a properly coded responsive website or web app will look just fine.” So the idea being that fonts, images, layout, etc. will change size depending on the size of the screen you’re viewing them on. As you can imagine, with the way consume data and media, it was a pretty big deal.
Okay, but where does the PWA come in? “…A PWA is basically taking RWD to its ultimate highest level. Essentially…you can think of it as RWD on steroids, because it brings in all the power that comes with native HTML5 and CSS (and you throw in some JavaScript to add some extra capabilities, of course…).” “The big advantage of using a PWA over native is you have one code base, so instead of having to write one app in iOS with SWIFT, and then having to write the whole app again from scratch for android in JAVA or KOTLIN. PWA is a lot cheaper to get your app out there, and [while] you don’t get the full benefit with a PWA that you get with native, you get a lot of the benefits.”
Now the VLOG will go into really good detail weighing the pros and cons of PWA or native (and believe me there are way more pros), but as a dev or a freelancer you should always be thinking about where businesses are coming from. Most of the time they’re not interested in the “nerd” implications of the languages, frameworks, etc. that you use, they just want to get up and running fast and get the product or service out there and PWA is your best bet. -ENJOY
