Starting from (just about) Zero
How do you even begin to start thinking about learning to code on your own?
The only thing that I ever really knew about HTML was how to do use the “a href” tag in the text editor in WordPress. That was it. ย Seriously.ย
In thinking about how I could become a website developer, and taking on my first client (hi Mom!), I knew a higher and higher skill level would be needed as I took on one, two and three more clients at a time.
[box type=”info”]Side note: this was actually when the concept for 20 Hours Ahead came into being. Like the proverb about out running a bear, I don’t have to be the best developer in the world, I just have to know how to develop more and better than my client (not that I wish my clients to be eaten by bears… *Insert new proverbial comparison here)[/box]
At this point, I began googling quick HTML and CSS fixes and intuitively figuring some of this “coding stuff” out. I think the year of C++ programming I had in high school made this a little easier, but not by much!
However, bits and pieces of information were not going to get me anywhere. I’m a big picture person, and needed to know more of what was going on. I needed to get <meta>, as it were.
After watching this inspiring TED video, and reading up on some popular coding languages to learn, I followed one of the links to CodeAcademy. It was simple, it was at my level and it was F-R-E-E!! ย I signed up and immediately completed the first few lessons.
This was going to be easier than I thought (or so I thought)…
Estimated hours of learning and research: 2
Stay tuned for what’s next!
Here’s the video that started the path…
[ted id=1657]