JavaScript needs no introduction… even a quick google search will give you all you need to know. But at one time JS had a rival, a new kid on the block and it was called CoffeeScript (You can google it if you want but don’t bother…). “A few years back people were like ‘oohhh, CoffeeScript!’, the hipster nerds were, ‘Ooooh, CoffeeScript runs faster than JS, it’s better – you gotta use CoffeeScript!’.” And the sad thing was CoffeeScript did have some advantages and was actually slightly faster than JS but, “Rule of thumb: when you have a technology, whether it be a programming language or framework but it’s extremely dominant in the marketplace, for it to be replaced there would literally have to be some paradigm shift for that to happen. It is very very rare that you see a very established technology replaced by something that’s maybe 20% or 30% better…It has to be 5 times better! …or more.”
“Now CoffeeScript was faster blah blah blah, JS was so dominant that all JS people had to do was come in with es6, which is the latest version of JS…and CoffeeScript is now {indicates ‘thumbs down’ motion and ‘failure’ sound effect}…no more.”
This falls into something we talked about herenot too long ago, called ‘the shiny tech trap’, which is abandoning more mature/tried and true/old technology for something that’s brand-spanking new and purports to do things slightly faster and better. Unless it’s a HUGE leap forward the absolutely changes everything for the better, it’s generally not going to happen…
Take a sip of the steaming-hot cuppa VLOG to really get a sense of what we’re talking about and as a bonus, we talk about RUBY but not in a terrible way…I mean not a great way, but not terrible. Check it out. -Enjoy!
The belief that the cutting edge tech must be the tech you use in your projects.
You may have heard your dad or your grandpa say something pretty close to this while grumbling about cars, phones or television sets; and that’s ‘shiny and new isn’t always better’. “As beginners you hear about this new technology is so great, that new technology is so great, etc, etc, and you can get overwhelmed and caught up with all this. …It’s chasing the illusion of perfection.”
And no demographic is more vulnerable to this illusion than young developers. For ease (and fun) let’s refer to this demographic as “noob” developers. “…[Noob] developers will chase perfection in their application development looking for ‘the better language’, or ‘the better framework’.” No only is this a waste of precious time but also a brisk jaunt into the realm of madness. “Don’t get me wrong, there are frameworks that are more ‘mature’ [or] ‘better’ than other frameworks given the application that you want to build. [For example]…If you’re building an AI based system, you’re not gonna wanna do that with PHP…you could…people have done machine learning with PHP – I wouldn’t do it – no, no you do PYTHON because that’s where all the action is, that’s where the market share is: that’s where it’s ‘mature’. …[But] you’ll find that any of the prominent frameworks and languages out there today…they’re going to produce good work…whether the app is good or not is up to you.”
Break your foot off on this VLOG for a very in-depth (and tangent-filled) dive into the “new tech trap” and remember, “in general all these frameworks and languages have pros and cons and everything looks greener on the other side of the fence until you get there.” -Enjoy.
Alright, so you’re learning to code and you feel like you’ve got a relatively good grasp of the fundamentals, you’ve done a few tutorials and they confirm that from a theoretical standpoint: you got this!
Well, that’s good news…so what’s next? Maybe some more challenging tutorials to really put your knowledge to the test? Perhaps we send out some resumes to companies telling them we’d be on board for some intern/unpaid work to “try things out”? …Oh no, my sweet little birdie…it’s time to spread your wings and fly! “When people are learning anything new (and coding is not unique in this regard), …there’s often a lot of fear or trepidation: the unknown, the new, is kind of…it’s anxiety-provoking for people, especially career-oriented choices.”
Just Jump In, Man… Now full disclosure here, when we’re advocating “jumping in”, we’re assuming 1-That you’ve done our courses (shameless plug), which are designed to take advantage of over almost 3 decades in the business and to prepare you quickly and efficiently to handle almost any problem right out of the gate, or 2- That you’re trained to the gills and really just don’t know what you’re next step is. “A good course will give you the confidence to feel that you can move forward and actually do something for real. [When] you can build responsive a website, you’re ready to go. Do you know everything? No. But you’re ready to go.” “You learn so much more by building real-world projects for real people as opposed to walking through tutorials. Because what you’re going to learn: a big part of being a developer is interacting/speaking/communicating with the client; figuring out problems along the way.”
The VLOG goes into more detail and closes with a really nice bit of advice, which we recommend checking out, but it wouldn’t be a great VLOG if we didn’t have a mind-bending, super mario galaxy-inspired shot at the end, which we also recommend checking out. -Enjoy!
Does it make sense to use open source software … or should you write all your software from scratch?
Ask any grizzled old veteran of any industry if it’s best to build from scratch and they’ll more often than not say ‘Hhhhaaaaiiiiyyyyyllll no!’ “The last thing you want to do is reinvent the wheel.”, but hopefully they’ll have a funky beard and a Texan accent…no wait, I’m thinking of a prospector, yup. Sorry.
But the same answer can be applied (sans accent, I guess) to the question, is it better to build from scratch or use open source software? “The last thing you want to do is write code that someone has already written. …Remember when you’re using a high level language like JAVAscript or PYTHON or PHP…you’re using somebody else’s code; …you’re actually using code based on other code. This notion that it’s best to rewrite from scratch, it’s something that young developers have…”
Is there a time when you don’t want to use open source code? Absolutely, and I’ll let the VLOG do the explaining for that. Plus, there’s some sweet top-down car riding all over Montreal with a 360 camera. Check it out, and when in doubt, remember the three rules of software development: 1. Reuse 2. reUSE 3.REUSE -Enjoy!
No matter how knowledgeable you may be, humility is still the most appreciated skill to have…
Another startling discovery from DUH (the Department of Urban Humanity); no matter how much knowledge you may posses, nobody likes a ‘know-it-all’.
“…a sure sign of youth, or a classic trait of the young is arrogance; figuring that you know it all or that you’ve figured it all out.”
Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t some arrogant old-timers out there but (and this is assuming that with age comes wisdom, of course), “…one of the things you learn as you become older is to become more humble: to realize that you do not have all the answers…”
And we do not want to make this one of those ‘back my day’ rants at all. We realize that this generation is one of the most well-informed and knowledgeable generations there is. Think of this as more of a life hack (and yes, it is very ironic): The more humble you are in any given situation, the more empathetic you become and the more people are going to want to listen to you. “you want to be skeptical of everything and…you want to realize that you don’t know everything…”
Check out our VLOG for an in-car-chat about our experiences as we got older (yes, we were arrogant ‘know-it-alls’ once upon a time too). And know that the ability to admit that you’re wrong or that you don’t have all the answers is not a weakness, it’s a strength…but then again, what do we know?
Look we’ve all been there, man… You’ve got a task to do and you don’t feel like doing it. You put it off… you do the dishes (maybe even clean your entire house), or just play video games and go down youtube’s rabbit hole…
It’s procrastination: pure and simple. You’ve fought it since you were 13 years old and had a 15 page essay to write, due in 2 weeks. But as a dev or a programmer; new or veteran, you’ve got a job to do and you can’t just put things off (for too long, anyway…).
Let’s start off by trying to understand procrastination and then we’ll go into some techniques to combat it…well, ONE technique really but it’s pretty effective. When it come to procrastination there are really 3 problems at play and you could have one, both or all mixed in a cocktail of “I’ll get to it later…”, which is a terrible cocktail cuz it never gets made <baddum-ching>.
1- Fear: Ah yes, that old chestnut… But yeah, fear this isn’t going to work, fear that you’re not going to go anywhere or that you’re missing out on other things, etc, etc. 2- Being Overwhelmed: There’s too much to do, too much to learn, etc… 3- Boredom: This one is pretty insidious. We don’t really have the end goal planned out (the job we’re going to get/money we plan on making, the skill we’ll have learned, etc.).
The key answer for all these problems and procrastination in general is something your mom or even your teacher might have told you (and believe me, I hate to admit they were onto something too)…
…Do 20 minutes a day…
I know it’s so simple you almost have to laugh but it’s true. Doing 20 minutes a day of any activity has so many benefits but I’m only going to list a few here: -It’s an easy to achieve goal. 20 minutes can go by pretty fast and if you find yourself ‘getting into it’ and want to take longer, you can! -You tend to learn much more quickly if you expose yourself on a frequent basis to that activity you need to get done. Some interesting math: 20 minutes a day for 5 days a week (cuz we need our weekends) is 100 minutes. That frequent exposure is going to help your brain learn faster and more effectively than 200 minutes once a week.
I can’t even begin to tell you the length at which this is covered in the VLOG and shameless self promotion: 20 minutes a day is roughly how long the lessons in our courses (link below) are structured for, so don’t have to sit there for hours wondering when it will end with a fried brain. Check it out…after the video game, heh. Enjoy!
Coffee and fasting increases your mental capacity by a considerable amount.
Before we get started, please consult a physician before starting any radical changes to your diet…
Coffee: Sweet siren of the morning, warm cup of non-judgmental love… Almost all of us are familiar with coffee in some shape or form, but it`s not just for sipping on while ignoring your co-workers in the morning. Caffeine in coffee has been shown to increase cognitive ability by 50% for about 2 hours within minutes of drinking it. As a dev or programmer, you could do a lot with that 50% bump…
Intermittent Fasting (24 hrs.): This will be wayyyy less fun than coffee… But studies have shown that fasting helps to increase brain functions and activity. Now, the first few times you do this, it’s gonna suck; honestly! But you will get past it and you can drink coffee (which also suppresses appetite), and water. Also, the best time to start a fast is right after dinner, the night before so that when you wake up from sleeping, you’re usually about 8 hours into your fasting and only have about 16 hours left (he said as if it was a good thing).
So there you have it! Feel free to do some independent research on these topics and listen to your body if you’re not feeling well. Check out the VLOG for some more fun and enjoy that first cuppa…JAVA…mwahahaha, I got a million of these!!
People tend to fall into “camps” when it comes to programming languages, operating systems, etc. They swear by a certain operating system or only code with a certain programming language… Simply put, if this is you, you’re going to have a bad time…
To use an analogy, “If I was doing home repairs…[I see] we’ve got some nails to hammer, I’m not going to pull out my screwdriver…”. “When you become a professional developer, you’re going to be language neutral. You’re going to look at all these languages as tools to leverage depending on the circumstance.”
Broken record time: it’s all about fundamentals. Learn your fundamentals, “…because every language, every technology has it’s purpose or has it’s strong points and weak points…with some exceptions, some technologies are just dated…and they’re old school and you’re not gonna use them anymore.”
Generally speaking “noobish developers will say that this language is the best and everything else sucks, and if somebody tells you that on youtube or anywhere else, you know by definition they’re noobs (…except for us LOL).”
Check out the VLOG for some other really fun analogies and a sweet dig at RUBY. It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t dig at it every now and then… Go out there, try it all and save the camping for summer vacation or FPS games!
A top tip for solving complex development problems. This problem solving tip also works in all other aspects of life…except dating.
The number 1 problem solving tip, huh? I know, everyone and their mom claims to have the number 1 problem solving tip to end all problem solving tips… But unlike THOSE guys, ours isn’t just the top ranked, it’s also the first in a series of problem solving tips that we can continue if this gets popular.
So what is it, you ask? Strategy: “…to break down the problem into simpler components and then deal with those components individually.”
By taking a complex problem and breaking it down to it’s smaller components, it makes it much easier than trying to tackle this big, giant of a problem and either drowning in the sheer mass of the problem or just plain rage-quitting.
We tackle much more than just the philosophy of STRATEGY in the VLOG. We talk about how this technique has great roots in “object oriented programming” and even how you can apply this technique in aspects of your everyday life. Once you try it, it’ll be hard to solve problems any other way.
Come yung’uns, gather by the fire that I may tell you a story… well more of a walk-through really… The older kids have heard it before and have gone on their separate ways… Now, you’ll hear it and make your choices and go your separate way… I see you’re all fresh-faced and want to make a splash at being a developer but you feel inexperienced and unequal to some of the bigger boys and girls out there. You wonder, ‘what can I do to become a pro ASAP?’ Well huddle ’round the fire quickly and listen, before you start asking yourself why are a bunch of ‘young’ developers huddling around a fire to listen to an old man? Wait, what’s happening, where are we?!
1- Learn Your Foundations Well: Foundations being the languages; HTML5, CSS, JAVAscript, etc. Understand the client-server model, understanding the relationship between client computer, server computers, client apps, server apps, etc… <SHAMELESS PLUG1: Check out our links at the bottom to a bunch of awesome and beefy courses which will detail everything you will nedd to know>. 2- Frequency of Exposure: Simply put: the more you code, the better you get at it. You can read a book or watch a video but if you can’t put the theory into practice, how much have you retained? How much can you really use? <SHAMELESS PLUG2: Our courses have a wealth of questions, quizzes and exercises to make sure that you can put what you just learned into practice.> 3-Start Building Little Mini-Projects: You don’t have to build a “facebook” right outta the gate. Tiny, diverse projects will get you way more all around experience. Then you can start building small projects that actually do things for yourself or others. Ex: build a shopping cart that integrates with paypal, build a basic login system, etc… 4- You’re Always Learning New Things: Obviously, a developer of 10 years has a lot less to learn than a dev of 2 years that they’re STILL learning. It keeps you sharp and versatile. Which brings us back to point #1, if you’re well versed in your foundations, learning new stuff is pretty easy…
Well, that’s it yung’uns… Any questions or something you need more explanation on, check out this Vlog where we go into detail on all the points and of course, feel free to check out the links below to our courses, you won’t regret it <SHAMELESS PLUG3>. I’m going to go talk to our location director… -Enjoy.
