Posted in Flashback Friday, Learning Woes

Flashback Friday 02/2020

200 Hundred Days of Code

So, we talked about how structure and time are all warped in my head. Flashback to the #100DaysOfCode Challenge.

#100DaysOfCode is a challenge that designing to help people create a habit of coding on a daily basis. The thought is that by committing and posting daily on the things one did to further their coding goals the community works to hold each other accountable for fulfilling this commitment and meeting our personal goals.

I completed the challenge twice. Once, I was just moving towards doing a daily accountability and the second I focused on Javascript. The end result is that I completed the challenges , but it didn’t improve my habits. If nothing else having to complete it because I’d made a commitment kind of burned me out and at some points frustrated me to no end. I think for some it would create a habit and maybe if I had chosen a project to work on that I was passionate about it would have made it fun for me, but I didn’t and didn’t reflect enough about what I wanted and who I am to make a more informed choice before committing. If I was to do the challenge today I would probably concentrated on python for hackers/pentesters and writing scripts, because I think that would keep me interested, but I have a little too much on my plate currently to make that kind of commitment.

Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.

Norman Vincent Peale
def greet(name):
    print ('Hello', name)

greet('Jack')
greet('Jill')
greet('Bob')

I would recommend anyone to take up this challenge if they wanted to find a way to build habits. If you look on the site linked below it will show you that #100DaysOf_ can build habits in any number of subjects. I would just interject that if this is the choice to find something that is challenging and interesting enough to make you want to complete the challenge, not because it is a challenge, but because the project makes you passionate.

#100DaysofCode Site

Posted in Flashback Friday

Flashback Friday 01/2020

#100DaysOfCode Parts I and II

When I was starting out I did two stints of #100DaysOfCode which is as the hashtag reads  a commitment to work 100 consecutive days on coding. I thought that if I did these it would help me buckle down and work on learning to code and for those days it kind of did, but after the stints I remember feeling kind of burnt out.
As I hype myself up right now to go back and work on Python and getting back into working with this language, as well as, prepping to take the Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer certification (PCEP) – [ I really just want to feel kind of validate in my learning, which is the reasoning behind the exam for me] – I find myself thinking back at these stints of daily coding and what might have gone wrong for me.
Although, I am the kind of person who is good with making and sticking with commitments and structured work/learning, I am also the kind of person who is easily annoyed by monotony. The problem for me with #100DaysOfCode is that day after day it can get monotonous and make people such as myself not want to do the work. This is a personal issue and probably an issue with the way in which I went about doing the challenge. I think that instead of focusing on one book for weeks or one project I should have had concurrent projects which I could have rotated when one go stale.
If I decide to do this challenge again this I think that I will have a few projects going and also have FreeCodeCamp rework / Github Clean up interwoven. I’m still on the fence with whether or not I should do something like this challenge, but some parts of it were very good for me, it made me productive in a way.

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.”

~ Nolan Bushnel