On a recommendation from some Slack friends I started Wes Bos’s JavaScript30 course. As of today, I’ve completed 5 of the 30 courses and I’m feeling much better about Javascript. Having went through the watchandcode videos, these videos feel familiar and aren’t too hard to follow along with. JS30 is also diving into CSS (something I’ve avoided learning) in an easy way. I decided to start on some more JS since I’ll be working with Node.js in my upcoming internship.

As it stands right now my goals to work towards are:

  • JavaScript30 (JS/HTML/CSS)
  • Write a YNAB App for MagicMirror (Node.js/Electron)
  • Finish Reading Clean Code by Bob Martin
  • Port my RadonTestManager to Ruby on Rails

On to the topic of problem solving.

I think when encountering problems, the best solution doesn’t have to be knowing the answer, but rather knowing where to find the answer. Knowing the answer definitely helps, especially when time is of the essence, but most of the time an immediate answer is not needed. In today’s interconnected world, the answer is probably sitting in your pocket a browser click away. By using the right search engine and search string, one can usually find the answers they seek. This doesn’t always apply to abstract or conceptual problems, but I think when seeking technical answers, it is crucial. This way of thinking also helps in retaining “answers” but essentially creating an index for your brain. You only keep the information in there that can get you to the answer, not the answer itself. This has been extremely useful as I hop around to different programming languages. I don’t need to remember the exact syntax for an “if” statement in Python, Ruby, C#, JS, etc. if I can just give it a quick Google. Same thing with some of the Object Oriented Programming concepts such as Inheritance. This does become hard though when beginning with a new framework that has unique syntax or structuring that’s not similar to anything else. The idea that comes to mind currently is React. It’s JS but seems (to me at this point in time) to have a very unique way of doing things that isn’t exactly intuitive coming from another language or framework, so will require a bit more digging/learning before I can learn the right questions to ask to get the job done. One last thing on problem solving: there is always a solution, it’s just not might be within your control.