Coding Bread Crumbs

I realize my writing isn't that much about code anymore.  Not because I don't like to code, on the contrary, I find myself wanting to learn more then ever.  I never wanted my blog to be only code tutorials.  I wanted it to be a small path of helpful breadcrumbs to show others where I went in the mysterious, dark and sometimes lonely coding forest.  A small trail that others who got lost in the forest might find to help guide them on their way. One thing that hasn't changed since getting hired is the need to learn.  Learn as much, as fast as possible, without much training or help.

My course was almost completed. Now there has been an unexpected "monkey wrench" thrown into the mix.  That's okay, the only thing that doesn't keep changing is change itself.  The one natural talent or God given gift I possess is determination.

Whenever in my life I have gotten complacent, something happens that jerks me back to reality and reminds me of my one true strength grit.  The same toughness that allowed me to shoe 20 horses in a single day. The same never give up attitude that left me unable to drive home, laying on the ground vomiting from heat stroke waiting for my wife to come drive me home, all to keep my word to finish all of the horses I promised to do. The same ability to mentally deal with the pain of my pinkie and thumb broken, and shoe another 5 horses before I stopped for the day.

Life is like that, some things change, some things don't. I am grateful for the ability to be tough when things get hard. Sometimes I should give up and I don't. There is so much to learn in software, you never really make it. It reminds me of looking out at the ocean from the 16th story of a hotel room, feeling so small and the ocean so vast.

People have accused me in rather mean emails of romanticizing the 'learning to code' journey, making it sound easier then it actual is.  I hope I only convey the love for learning and for the ability to take life by the horns and change your life for the better.  I get excited about that, I get excited when some coding problem 'clicks'.  Sometimes, I notice how big the coding ocean is and get scared.  Usually I just focus on making myself better at navigating my coding ship. So one day, I may be able to hold my own through small waves and eventually a real storm.

I love the 'WBP' coaching I am getting from Michael Lavery, but will be stopping for a little while as I need to focus on re-doing my course to make it a better fit for beginners as well as some other things that I can't mention here. I was able to bounce a golf ball 374 times in a row with my left hand off of a 16 oz. claw hammer.  If you've never tried, you should.  Most people can't bounce a golf ball 3 times in a row.  I really feel like my corpus callosum is feeling the effects of all the brain training exercises I am doing.  I feel my speed is increasing at learning new things.  I am still sleeping like a baby :-)

As we approach the 1 year anniversary of my book I thought what better way to say thank you to everyone then by giving a lot more incredibly useful information at no additional cost :-) I am going to be editing, revising, and adding a whole lot more content to the book.  Originally I was going to write another e-book that I was going to release this fall, showing people how to speed up their coding abilities entitled: "Hacking How To Program"  The book's main purpose being how to help people learn how to code much faster simply by learning the 80 20 rule of coding and get past a lot of the 'sticking' points of learning how to code.  Now though if you have bought my book previously, I am sure that Amazon will send out an updated copy of the book once it is finished.  You don't want to miss some of the secrets I have learned the hard way while learning to code!



Keep coding peeps, the seas eventually start to calm :-)

Ambidextrous Coding - 2 week update

Well things have been happening, life is good! This Whole Brain Power training is really working. Everything in my life right now is improving.  My golf game is doing better, I typically drive a golf ball 200 - 220 yards, after 1 week of intensely doing the 'WBP' training regime my drives now average 220 - 240 yards.

I also took up juggling and have caught as many as 402 throws in a row without dropping any of the balls, after only 10 days! My wife knows sign language so I had her teach me the alphabet. After watching her and trying 4 times I was able to memorize and do the entire sign language alphabet!!!

It honestly felt like someone else was doing the learning for me that's how much easier it was for me to retain the new information. Instead of it feeling like I was trying so hard to remember each hand sign. it was almost like I couldn't forget the hand gesture as I went back through the alphabet to recall each one! The same for solving a coding issue or 'bug', this week at work I seemed like I was able to get unstuck from issues 50% faster then before starting the 'WBP' training program.

My course is almost done, and should be live on Udemy on July 1st, it has taken a lot longer, and has been a WHOLE lot more work, then I had originally anticipated it would be. I am feeling SO happy to almost have it completed.

Since starting the 'WBP' training 2 weeks ago, I have lost 2 pounds (without changing anything to my diet) and feel stronger then when I was shoeing horses everyday for a living. My mood is more elevated, I can feel myself being able to focus like a laser beam for an extended period of time without really trying.

If you are learning to code, or learning a new programming language you need to get Coach Lavery's  Whole Brain Power book and try the brain enhancing exercises for 30 days. I wish I had started doing 'WBP' at the beginning of my learning to code journey.

Here is a sample of me learning Javascript, writing out the data types in left handed cursive ( I am a natural right hander), YOU CAN'T forget them after doing that :-)

Keep coding peeps! You can do this =-)