For the past few days, I've been restless in my coding education. Since I got this site up and running in Pelican, I've felt a little lost. I set out to build this site from the ground up, and I did. From complete blank page to site generator, I did this whole thing. And while it had it's challenges, I felt so...focused, awesome, powerful, like I was finally on the path to being a developer.
Then I decided to veer off the path of a custom CMS, and towards my heart's mission: the bi-weekly budget that always I've wanted. Something that allows me to work in one app, and not the three I currently use to balance my money.
But I've been floundering ever since I made that decision. I decided to try to learn a JavaScript framework as a gateway into the framework I really want to learn to build the app. Then I felt that I didn't have enough of a grasp of basic JavaScript to understand what the hell I was reading in those tutorials. So I decided I really just need to get back to my JavaScript basics. But, I zone out when I'm reading books, and I often get impatient with video courses. And while I love FreeCodeCamp, I find that I'm not retaining what I'm doing from lesson to lesson, even though I'm figuring it out as I go.
Then I found an article about the quickest way to become a Web Developer. The author's answer? Build projects. That's all.
And that really resonated with me. When I was working on this site, I learned so much and felt so motivated to figure things out, even when I got pissed that something didn't work, or upset when a presentation didn't work. I had a project to work on, and it drove my learning.
So I recognize I learn best when working on a project, and not just a series of code exercises, and I have a project in mind.
WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM THEN?
I shared my educational resistance with my husband (who is the best sport when it comes to my code nerd ramblings!). I talked to him about my successes with my site, and how I wanted to replicate that with my app, but it felt too big. I didn't know where to start and it was paralyzing me.
He looks at me and says "Well, do you know specifically what you want your app to do?"
I realized, maybe for the first time ever, that I had no idea what specifically I wanted my app to do. And what I really mean is I didn't sit down and figure out my MVP for the app. All I could see was this massive final project that seemed completely beyond my skill set.
I got this site up because I had a specific starting place (fully static site), and a specific next stop on the roadmap (site using a static site generator.). My app is still very much just an idea - a vague concept of what I'd like without any plan points.
I also realized this - working on learning to code doesn't always mean writing code. I've read time and time again that most professional developers spend more time on non-code tasks. I think I felt that not actively writing code meant I wasn't learning. But I can't get somewhere if I have no idea where the hell I want to end up! I've got to work out a plan, just the way I did for my site.