If you’re relatively new to programming:

• Choose a language and stick to it.

• Choose a text editor that is easy to learn and stick to it.

• Avoid large frameworks like Rails and Django until you’ve got a decent grasp on the language you’re using.

• Write lots of code. The specific code you write is less important than that you write lots of code.

• Don’t worry about choosing the “perfect” project. It’s easy to let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes to project selection.

• Have your code reviewed regularly, ideally by someone who knows the language you’re working in well.

• Pair program, ideally with people who know the language you’re working in well.

• Develop a good mental model of your code.

• Become a systematic debugger.

• Write small programs from scratch.

• Give yourself progressively larger challenges. For example, write a project you think will take an hour, then an afternoon...

If I’m serious about learning to code I’m going to have to learn how to type a little faster.

I calculated my typing speed at 36 words per minute.
If I don’t look at the keyboard I’m hitting 7 words per minute.

I bought myself touch typing keyboard cover and started using Keyzen to learn how to touch type.

I would like to hit to 60 words per minute in one month.
I aim to practice 4-6 times a day for 15 minutes each time.

Will update progress on twitter. Please tweet me if you have any recommendation for good touch typing resources.

Stuff I’m using:

1. Typing speed test
   
2. Keyzen
   
3. Found Keyzen in 20 Hours. Great book on learning
   
4. Touch typing keyboard cover

Total Days 2

Total Earned $0.

I learnt that a “tag” is a bit of code that tell a browser what to do. For a tag to work you have to <open> it and then </close> it.

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1. If you want some text on a webpage you put it inside a <p>aragraph tag. Html doesn’t acknowledge line breaks so if you want a new paragraph you need to use a <br>eak tag. <br>eak tags can be self-closing when written as <br />. If you want a line instead of just a line break then use a <hr /> tag for a horizontal rule (like the short grey line above).
2. You can format text. Use the <strong> tag for bold, <em>phasis tag for italics, the <u>nderline tag or the <strike>through for strikethrough text. There are also 6 sizes of header text. <h1> is the largest and <h6> the smallest.
3. You can also create lists. <ol> for numbered lists and <ul> for bullet points. In between the open and close tags each list item starts...

Total Days 0
Total Earned $0

The guy who wrote the first course I’m taking Rob Percival wrote kindle single called How To Earn $10,000 While Learning To Code.

The book lays out a simple but practical roadmap to getting paid as you learn how to code. It almost sounds too good to be true so I took it on as a challenge.

(Read the post I wrote 596 days later)