Starting a New Course — Web Development, A decade Later.
Guess who’s learning a new course?
I’m just getting ready to start a new course on udemy, and I have gotten some new thoughts about skills that I have acquired over time, and how I can make the most out of this course!
I just bought a web development boot camp course, from beginner to expert, that is supposed to make you a full-stack developer.
I am really excited to be in a space to think through this course before I get started on it! I think I would derive a lot of value if I do this instead of just jumping right into the course and getting these skills.
Other Skills I have developed
Over the years I have developed skills in graphic design, photography, videography, and also video editing! Video editing is the last skill that I started really getting into about 5 years ago, and I would get deep into Youtube Land, and just watch a bunch of tutorials. I got a bootlegged version of premier pro and started editing. I would get stuck and call my friends or I would just type up that particular problem online and the solve it!
This is how I have learned majority of software! really random and ad hoc, unstructured, and just learning whatever I needed whenever the project I needed doing came up!
I am unafraid to jump into a design problem because I know that I shall hack my way around, and if there’s some knowledge I don’t have, I can google it.
I need a structured learning process.
I wondered to myself why do the same with this new information?!
What I want to try is a new way of learning, where you sit down and actually learn things — chronologically as compared to, solving problems on the fly, and trying to learn whenever necessary!
In hindsight, this was not a very good way to learn anything, and therefore I think it would be valuable to get some structure as I get into this web development course!
This is why I bought this web development course on Udemy. It’s focused, and according to the description, the instructor will go in depth, starting with basic knowledge and then building on top of that. This means I would have the entire information in the course, not random knowledge.
The value is not in the knowledge of tools but finished projects.
However, when I think about the graphic design knowledge I have! the value doesn’t come in the knowledge of the tools but how I apply it.
Take for example, you can learn how to use tools in illustrator, or learn the fundamentals of graphic design, but actual value comes when you complete an entire project, say, design a visual identity system, or design a publication on in design! that is where I have found to have gotten most of the value over time!
Learning photoshop or Illustrator is the technical skill, but actually producing finished design work is the craft. The craft is where the value is at.
This influences a lot how I take on this new course,
Since I know for a fact that, just learning how to do small technical things won’t do anything for me but the projects that I make, I think it would be very valuable to start making small projects from the get go. It would benefit me a lot to actually develop entire websites and then publish them online, or have them in my domain, the little projects that I ship.
What I want to learn the most is to create things out of nothing, and I think that is what I love the most about code and media! that you literally start with nothing and then you build something worth while.
that is what I love the most about code and media! that you literally start with nothing and then you build something worth while.
with this in mind, I would get more value from a design course, if I was actually making things, than if I was just watching people make things!
I have learned how to learn.
Anyways, I think that because I have foundational knowledge in learning things like design and editing, learning to code won’t be the hardest thing I ever tried to learn, because, I have already learned how to learn!
I have tried this before!
This is not the first time I have tried to learn web development, over 10 years ago, I tried and quit. It became boring, and I wasn’t seeing the exciting visual elements that I wanted to see like beautiful pages come to life. So I thought, learning the more exciting, design aspects would benefit me so much more.
In those 10 years, I have thrown myself into the world of visual design, photography, video and other aspects of visual arts! I think I have a firm understanding of good design, and design principles.
When I went online to w3schools the other day, This emotion came back to me so strongly, a reminder that I never actually sat through basic web development a decade ago, what makes me think I can do it now? I know my inner critic, and sometimes I expect that kind of self talk from myself!
A fight with my dad, a decade ago!
I remember having a fight with my dad about my career choices, when I told him, that I want to be a web developer! It was our first fight, and maybe that is why there is so much emotion me going back to actually learn how to code!
When I was 18, getting ready to go to Uni, I had a fight with my dad. He accepted to pay for my college tuition where I would start an Accounting course, but I told him that, it would be a waste of his money since I want to learn web design instead! He got mad that, that skill was unemployable here in Kenya, and all the web designers he knew were really broke computer repair people; that was not his vision for me.
We worked things out, but his world view never changed for the next couple of years. Needless to say, I did not continue pursuing web design. Only basic wordpress theme customization. Period.
Why I decided to do it right now!
For a couple of reasons, I have been in the no code developer camp for a while now, for something like 6 months. When I was deep into Notion communities, I started finding other No code apps and people who were using No code software to make cool things, then my fascination with being a startup founder came back again. I realized that I cold actually go back and start shipping projects only using No code apps. I have been so fascinated by this.
I got so many memories from some of my dreams and things I was trying to build while in High school that never got to see the light of day! I have so many ideas of digital products, and I know they will never see the light of day, but this skillset will increase the probability that I will actually build something.
Startup Founders need to learn how to code.
Then I got on to the Paul Graham rabbit hole, and started reading his essays! literally in the last 3 months, he went on to say that for startups to be on YC, the founders must code their application. It gave me the feeling that, well, sometimes to hack big venture capital money, you need to know how to code; and I told myself, well, that makes a lot of sense, If I am able to make my app, then I can get funded.
I am interested in being a startup founder, and I was researching a lot about being a non technical founder; I realized, you can make it as a non technical founder but it would benefit you a lot to at-least have some technical knowledge.
Then someone asked on twitter, that what skill have you ever wanted to learn that you don’t have, and I replied;
“coding, but I am afraid it would take so long before I am actually any good at it!”
One of my high school friends told me to just do it, later on, some startup founders here in town also told me to just go ahead and learn at -least one thing, rather than talk about how cool it wold be if I ever had those skills.
Then finally I got into the Naval Rabbit hole and I have been consuming a lot of his videos and thoughts, and he also talked about code and media being permisionless leverage tools! that you can use code and media to generate income for yourself. This must have been my last straw into thinking, just go ahead and learn basic web development, you won’t lose a thing.
All in all, I saw that it would benefit me to learn this skill called web development, even though I consider myself an entrepreneur and not a developer.
