How many hours a day should you spend learning code?
‘Eager beavers’ everywhere! Whether it be the gym, sweet/salty snacks, continuing education, or becoming the best damn Fortnite player in history, most of us tend to go ‘hard and fast’: that is to say we try to absorb as much as we can in as little time as we can. The result: We end up ‘burning out’ real bad and probably never want to return to the thing that hurt us so bad…at least for awhile. We’ve all been there, we want to do, learn, or be something so bad that we end of ‘OD’ing’ (over-dosing) on it. And this is especially true with learning; remember the all night ‘cram’ sessions before big exams when you were younger? Add to that the fact that you’re learning a new skill like coding, which sometimes is not as intuitive as you’re used to things being, and you could ‘burn out’ before your first session is done!
So how many hours a day should you spend learning to code? “If you’re first starting out, you should maybe limit it to 30-45 minutes a day. Whenever you start getting into code for the first time, you’re literally going to be re-wiring your brain physically …you’re going to be learning to think and process information in a totally different way.”
What’s really cool about this is learning in different ways is that it makes your brain ‘stronger’. Much like physically training with different exercises, disciplines, and sports makes your body stronger and more adaptable to different stresses and pressures, learning/thinking and reasoning in different ways re-wires the brain to be ‘fit’ (for lack of a better word) and more adaptable to different situations. And I don’t know about you guys, but as I get older and more set in my ways, the need for an agile mind is more and more necessary.
Always leave’em wanting more It’s an old vaudevillian/performer’s adage. It means don’t go overboard when entertaining/performing. Always leave your audience wanting more so they will return, buy more tickets and (more importantly), they’ll want to be there. Very apt and very applicable to learning, “you should leave your daily learning session (encoding) wanting more, not exhausted. You wanna leave it and go, ‘this is cool’ …you want to create an association that’s positive, that’s fun with coding…”.
The VLOG really goes into more detail about this, while adding a psychological angle to it …and what would a good VLOG be without a RUBY slam (there’s more than one!), BOOM! Also, check out our courses for coding, freelancing or entrepreneurship <links below>. They have been built from the ground up with this very principle in mind! Remember when you’re starting out be kind to yourself, take it slow and easy, and have fun so you’ll want to come back. Whether it’s learning a new skill or anything else in life, it’s just a good ‘code’ to have… -Enjoy!
The state of the ‘developer ecosystem’ in 2019 by software development company of note: JetBrains.
In the beginning of 2019, JetBrains -a software company whose tools are geared towards software developers and project managers- polled almost 7,000 developers to identify the State of the ‘developer ecosystem’. The resulting article can be found here, in all its glory, but we thought we’d break it down for ya and give you some of our thoughts…
-Java is the most popular language. “Most developers will use multiple languages, so …it’s kinda silly to get caught up in what’s the most [popular].
-JavaScript is the most used overall language. “That makes sense because JavaScript’s in the web browser, if you’re doing React, Angular, if you’re doing a basic website, you’re going to be using JavaScript.”
-‘Go’ is the most promising programming language. “I would put ‘Go’ on a ‘perhaps to learn’ list. …The top languages to learn are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python…”.
-TL;DR.“One thing that you see across all the surveys, that JavaScript, Java, Python, HTML, CSS … SQL, these are all coding languages and in some cases programming languages that are always at the top or near the top of the stack. And another takeaway that were on all the surveys is that the web stack is still by far dominant.”
The VLOG goes into more detail, with more educated extrapolations and a sweet scenic boat or canoe ride. -Enjoy!
Should you continue to learn Python, even if Python jobs in the area are more or less in data sciences or other areas you’re not interested in?
So, what if you’re learning a language; Python in this case and you start looking around at possible jobs and realize that all or most of the jobs for Python are ones that you have no particular interest in? Do you stop learning and move onto something else?
“I think it’s a good idea to learn multiple languages, …every time I learned a new language my skills as a developer went <sound of a rocket taking off>, rocket[ed] right up. All these modern languages…they all share so many of the same qualities, but they look at things from a different point of view.” Think of it in terms of hanging out with different friends, even though hanging out with different friends has a lot of similarities: having a drink, talking, laughing, etc, the experience will always be different, ya know?
We’ve said it here before but there is no such thing as a wasted language, because each language learned is like a tool in your tool box, there will be an occasion to use it. Now that being said there are some obscure tools out there and if you’re getting into this business to make money, you’re probably better off learning to use the most popular tools. But, hey, you’re an adult and as you become more experienced in this field, you’ll figure out what’s worth your time…
Check out the VLOG, there’s a lot of great info, including some commentary on Swift and JavaScript. -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!
What are the top 10 programming (and coding) languages do employers want?
According to job listings on indeed.com as of may 16, 2019, we have the top 10 programming and coding languages that will get you hired. That’s right, sometimes the languages you enjoy and frequently use or swear by may not necessarily get you hired, but if you have experience with any of these top ten, you’ll have a job…at least until the end of 2019.
So what are the top ten, you ask? Well, if you’ve been following the VLOG, it’s not really a surprise… 1. Java 2. SQL 3. JavaScript 4. Python 5. HTML 6. CSS 7. C# 8. C++ 9. Ruby 10. PHP Bonus tip: While Java is at the top and you’ll have work for decades with it, Google has announced that they will be using Kotlin (while still offering support for Java) going forward. So, if app development for Android is your thing, ya might wanna look into that.
The VLOG goes into way better detail regarding the rankings, and of course, what would a VLOG be without some nice shots at Ruby for the #9 ranking! -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!
What if AI’s Impact on Society is actually exaggerated?
We think no matter what side of the fence you’re on when it comes to AI, we can agree that it’s a game-changing technology. Whether you embrace it as the new way that humans will live longer, faster and easier lives, or you distrust the ‘big brother’ implementations or even fear the ‘terminator’ films idea of how mankind is practically wiped off the planet by the fictitious ‘skynet’ AI, we’re here to tell you that, “…the rate at which it will change the game/change your society is greatly exaggerated.”
“What you’re going to see is AI machine learning is going to be used to enhance processes, not replace processes.” For example, take self-driving cars: the literature is that they are almost 95% fully automated but the last 5% is super tricky, there’s a lot of nuance and human -in the field/happening right now/this is bananas- complexity to contend with. “…what they have done they’ve used AI machine learning to enhance the driving experience; so lane warning detection that slows you down or stops if it sees something in front of it, etc, etc.”
The VLOG goes into way more detail and gives us an overview of what we can actually expect from AI in the years to come. “Our brains are designed to over-exaggerate fears, our brains are designed to over-exaggerate risk. Why? think about it in an evolutionary way: if you’re a cave-person running through the jungle and you hear rustling, you’re immediately going into hyper-alert [because] if that’s a predator, …you’re toast”. Unless an AI knew you were obsessing over this and sent you this VLOG to lull you into a false sense of security…? -Enjoy!
GitHub is a good indicator of how popular programming languages are.
GitHub is an American company that provides hosting for software development version control using Git and it is a subsidiary of Microsoft. The article we got this list from is here and it’s pretty much the usual suspects…
Check out the VLOG for our take on the list and a little bit of info on the entries. -Enjoy!
Netflix uses Python in the ways that Python is commonly used. It’s a good way to look at common Python applications.
Whether you’re waiting for Disney or WB to roll out their new streaming site, you can’t deny that Netflix is a giant in the streaming game – and depending on how every Media corporation now having a streaming media initiative that we’ll have to pay for goes – the catalyst/scapegoat for how this will all play out…
But we’re here to talk about PYTHON and specifically how NETFLIX use it in their day to day. Now, this is somewhat connected to a VLOG we covered recently and if you need citations, here’s the original article, but, “Netflix as you might imagine being a pretty big company with 140 million users they have all kinds of systems writing, and so what they do is they use PYTHON to reinforce the security of the systems…to analyze alerts and data reports coming off the systems; like activity reports and so forth. They leverage PYTHON’s AI capability and machine learning capability to do things like analyze movies, and to optimize the streaming, and to pull out images as an example to display thumbnails to people, etc, etc.” It’s really pretty interesting and amazing that PYTHON is being used in this way, because we definitely don’t think about it when we’re binge watching NARCOS, GLOW, or any other guilty little pleasures we might be ashamed to admit…
Get ready for a meaty and technical VLOG filled with, but not limited to the PYTHON libraries used, how Amazon’s servers are involved, and even security. It’s illuminating, if not a little dizzying to think that something we almost take for granted has sooo many moving parts (well, not moving parts, but you know what I mean)… -Enjoy!
Python is the Fastest Growing Language of 2019. In some cases it’s even more popular than JAVA.
Don’t believe the hype? Here’s the link to the PYTHON article… Now it’s important to note that the article is saying that it’s the fastest growing language; it’s not better than JAVA, please don’t DM us with arguments or nerd rage. But yeah, so far PYTHON is the fastest growing language of this year by about 2 million new developers.
A pretty good reason for this is, “…most of that growth is in AI machine learning development…Python is a language that glues systems together, so PYTHON is used to automate back-end processes, …monitoring system alerts, making sure processes just work well – it’s one of those great general purpose languages”.
Other things that may contribute to PYTHON’s growth is its popularity in the community, the libraries available, and the ease at which it can be learned. And on that note, it’s shameless plug time… We offer a PYTHON course that is quick and efficient and fun (although that last part is up to you.). Links to that and another great web development course are down below the video.
Check out the VLOG for our quick and dirty ‘code on the go’ segment on PYTHON as well as some more details and facts about PYTHON and it’s sudden rise in popularity. -Enjoy!
