What made you want to learn web development?
Always been into electronics and geeky stuff. First time he tried it, just messed around in the late 90s. Never gave it much thought as a profession. Saw other people having problems.
Shift more focus to web? Less people buying PCs. Not as much need for repair. Decided repair was going to dry up. Mobile market not going away. Most of the things people did on laptops they can do on mobile now.
What are your long-term goals that you think you can achieve by becoming a web developer? Freedom. Took his dogs for a 5-mile walk this morning. Focusing more on health. Impossible to do with a 9-5 job. Would take a full-time job if the right opportunity.
What’s the scariest part about learning web development? Not really scary. You have to be not afraid to break stuff. Frustrating when you can’t get stuff to work. Expect things won’t always work. Going into business for yourself and not making enough money.
What are the hardest parts to learn? CSS quirks, box model, positioning, layout. Trying to figure out compatibility issues. What new tech can I use? SVG
How do you decide which learning resources to use?
Watches a lot of YouTube videos. Has a few textbooks he uses and refers to. Mostly video or other live examples.
What makes a bad learning resource?
Being monotone or rambling. Doesn’t need to be super-concise, but stay on-subject.
Favorite YouTube: CSS Tricks. Guy got a job at Google. Sold to someone else. Guy out of India Pix in perfect. Breaks it down where you can easily understand. One thing he said recently: don’t try to learn photoshop to fix a specific problem but learn what the actual tools do themselves. Don’t google single problem. Casey Neistat, Gary Vaynerchuck,
Is there any particular medium you prefer (text, video, audio)?
Video
Where do you hang out online to get help if you get stuck?
If he knows something is supposed to work but isn’t, take a break for a few minutes and returns to it. Goes for a walk. If it’s something he hasn’t done before, he researches it to see what other people have done on Github.
Place he started when he first started was Codecademy. Thing their Python course now. You finished a course: now what?
Brad Hussey is a web developer out of Vancouver who was at my conference. YouTube series just on Bootstrap 3. From there, put people on the path of his other courses on Udemy and his own web site. Look at what he’s done.
Sometimes searches on YouTube, sometime Google generally. Goes to specific channel if he thinks they might have something.