Starting a New Course
After completing Andrei Neagoie and Yihua Zhang's "Complete React Developer in 2019" course, I decided I still needed more training on the React universe before I could really call myself a React developer. Yes, I could make something simple in React, so I can technically develop with React. The gaps in my knowledge are vast, though, and I think I would spend more time spinning my wheels than actually progressing at this point. After some deliberation, I landed on Neil Cummings' "Build an app with React, Redux and Firestore from scratch," a 29-hour course that focuses solely on creating one comprehensive app. I've decided from the start, though, that I was going to modify this app significantly so that my end product differs from the instructional model.
I had an idea for something that will match up with the course while being different enough. My idea is to create a site similar to Meetup where people can organize coding sessions with people in their area, but in a much more unstructured way than Meetup does it. The idea would be to have self-hosted "coding parties," where people would potentially decide to meet at one person's home or a designated spot and code together. Everyone at these parties would be using the same technologies, but from there, it would be open-ended. They could organize a group session to create something as a team, have a competition, or just an open-code session. It could go into more depth from there, giving people a ranking, thus differentiating more established coders from those just starting out and everyone in between. Some people may only want to work with people of their same skill level, while others may want to learn from more senior developers or mentor junior developers. Just like Meetup, these parties will serve a greater purpose of creating local networks while giving people a chance to learn and grow in public. The main reason to have it at someone's home would be to mitigate costs and hassles associated with finding a place to host an event like this. I'm still in the early stages of thinking this through fully; in fact, I just thought of this a couple hours ago while I was finishing up my shift at work, but I think it's a decent start.
This course looks to be a pretty good pick, especially if I can get a little more out of it by producing a worthwhile side project. If anything else, it will give me a chance to consume another 29 hours of useful content on the technologies I want to be using in my future job. I was able to get through the first 2 sections this evening after 12 hours in the Florida sun(108 HEAT INDEX) earlier today, which dealt with the setup of the app and a brief introduction into React. The second section acted as a refresher for me, since this is my 3rd course on React, but it's still great to hear it from another instructor in a slightly different way. I would like to finish the 3rd section tonight, but I'm fading fast. I really like the instructor so far; he's very thorough and seems to be going at a perfect pace for my skill level. We'll see how I feel about it once I get going on it!
Until tomorrow!
