From: Osuka Adartse Date: 2005-04-14T09:14:58+09:00 Subject: Re: On motivating a Ruby nubie Sy wrote: > Hey all. I wanted to dive into a topic that's been on my mind for > years. I've been interested in programming for a very long time and > yet somehow I've only ever dabbled. > > * I've never been forced to learn anything through school (a half-year > of turing and another half of ms access 1.0 does NOT count). Frankly, > I do not respect school for learning real programming skills and would > never pay someone money to teach me something I could learn by myself > for "free" (buying books, taking the time, searching for answers > myself). > > * I've never used such skills at work (batch files don't count). I > don't think I'll ever do anything programming-related until _after_ I > learn the skills and choose to use it. Honestly, I have an > opportunity to sneak in Ruby in my (small) business.. if it does the > job. Ruby on OSX gives us extra motivation too. > > * I've never had motivation to program as a hobby (batch files and > 4dos scripting doesn't count, vague interest in c or asm/machine > language doesn't count). I have no problems which I see solved by > programming myself more than using someone else's tool. So instead of > developing the programming skills, I have developed effective > researching and troubleshooting skills. > > And yet where I see that my problems can be solved by other people's > tools.. I feel as though I could make better tools myself. I > especially want to be able to create scripts and software solutions > for some of my stranger issues. I already know that I can be valuable > to the community being who I am and having the skills I do, but I > yearn to do more.. to solve problems MY way. > > --- > > And so after a lot of thought I ended up looking seriously at Ruby. > Lots of time passed and I revisited the subject to learn that a > community had self-organized, that issues with documentation and such > were being solved, that entertaining tutorials were being written > (props to wtls on that one). > > Fine. I like Ruby. I want to learn Ruby. How do I work on the > problem of motivation? > > Hack a little every day? Read a little every day? What books, what > tutorials, what news channels? I am not overwhelmed by the amount of > choices.. but I am confused at what order to do things in and why. > The biggest challenge to a complete nubie is the number of tools Ruby > uses.. > > I had a hand in resurrecting my local RUG. We had our seventh meeting > this month and every time feels like a real success. I did all this > knowing that I wasn't a "real programmer" and that.. I don't know > Ruby! I look back and wonder where all the time went. > > I'm a smart guy, so I am making do.. I am learning what I can but I > don't feel _effective_ or _motivated_. I don't want my hand held, I > just need a guiding light. > > > Has anyone thought about founding a "Ruby nubie" mailing list or > creating nubie-sized short-tutorials, quizzes and challenges? I'd be > very interested in participating. > > Just my personal 2 cents: As a non programmer I decided to learn Ruby and in the past a bit of c php and tried lots of langs. What has been the drive? I had a simple but repetitive task or a desire to organize stuff or wanted a simple-to-not-so-simple personalized app/script/utility. Things are personal while learning on your own. Personally I like to learn just for the sake of it,but that's me, maybe applies to You maybe not. But one thing I can assure You; if You have a need an Ruby can solve it, the way to go is: coding, experimenting with code ,testing snips of code, but above all: coding!. Find little needs that You have, even if silly(hey!! it has worked for me). i.e. "Damn I got this lot of files containing lyrics and I would like to ensure that the filename is *always* "Artist - The Name of the Song.lyr", well make a lil' util, done!, mmmh now I would like that those would get organized in a base directory c:\stuff\lyrics with subdirs a,b,c,d,e,f...z and have subdir a containing the lyrics of artists whose name start with 'a',done!...well what about having a local website! or those lyrics in a db or ...keep wishing, keep wanting , keep coding, remember to congratulate yourself everytime you succed, and try harder when not(but take a rest,get away to gain a better perspective, heck ask for help here). *start small*, You'll get more and more ambitious about your "needs" and better at designing how the code would be. *when feeling stuck* Every time You have doubts how to "do x" don't overthink,plan,etc. instead type code and experiment, todays lame experiments migth be tomorrows clever solutions. *code and achieve* nothing motivates *me*(and maybe others) like getting something done, the feeling of "Damn I'm good" and "whoaa I solved it myself". Since You're solving small problems that *YOU* have, motivation shouldn't be a problem, keep getting ambitious and You'll keep on coding and (hopefully)getting better at it. now back to porting that eruby app to Rails...(experimenting phase ;-)) Greetings Adartse.