How I Taught Myself to Code

The world of technology is in a persistant state of change. If the pandemic has revealed anything, it’s that tech is an essential fixture of any modern society hoping to survive, let alone prosper and advance. This is a fact that cannot be denied. Just look at the influence Zoom and other video conferencing softwares have had on business. Bill Gates even forecasts that more than 50% of business travel will disappear in a post-coronavirus world. This is huge!

The omniprescence of technology leads me to my point today. Becoming involved in tech is becoming more important as each day passes. The pandemic has revealed society’s intricate dependencies on our virtual abilities. Prior to the vast availability of internet resources, satisfying these knowledge requirements was often difficult and egregiously expensive.

My first personal venture into technology, specifically web development, was with a coding bootcamp at a local university. The name is unimportant because it’s like this everywhere. They were asking for close to $12,000 for 6 months of schooling (this was with a discount; he also mentioned that this cost was far lower than their competition). Cost resistance aside, there were plenty other considerations, including balancing the overwhelming time commitment against my ability to hold a full-time job while enrolled. This option was simply not a smart decision, all things considered.

Enter option #2. Udemy courses and YouTube became vital to my growth and education as a developer. I took advantage of fundamentally excellent courses, like Colt Steele’s Web Developer Bootcamp, to master the basics. I learned that mastering fundamentals was the key to long-term success in coding. Perfect the basics and understand one language completely before moving onto another one. This became my goal.

I will say, doing this self-study method of education can be difficult. It takes discipline to learn on your own. It takes a ton of congruent time and effort to get the job done. With that said, there is a lot of beauty in this approach. Doing something on your own ambition is an accomplishment worth a pat on the back. Remember to stay focused and stay the course!