ADVICE TO FUTURE MAKERS
This will be an ongoing collection of advice to people thinking of starting the Makers Academy bootcamp. So far I would say:
The basics:
1. DO IT
Think hard about it, assess your own aptitude, your financial situation and your determination, then do it
2. BE IN LONDON
So far, with no exaggeration, the hardest part has been finding a decent house in London without having to become an investment banker to be able to afford it. If you live there already, awesome. If you don’t, get there, get there early (before the pre-course starts) and be settled.
3. QUIT YOUR JOB.
See number 1, and when you are sure, quit your job — before you start the pre-course. If you aren’t ready to, then don’t do it.
4. DON’T DO IT IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT.
If you can’t afford to do 1 and 2, then don’t do it until you can. If you can afford just three months no work, then don’t do it. Save to have five months, at least, include the pre course and the job hunt after. Doing it once properly is 100 x better (and cheaper) than failing once, and trying again. And the last thing you need is stress about finances.
5. READ FAR, READ WIDE
This point might be controversial, but here goes. There’s a certain amount of learning that you’ll do on your own that when a skilled instructor explains properly, you’ll look back and wonder why on earth it took you so long to figure out. What this means is there is a certain amount of self learning that isn’t worth the effort of struggling through until you have the resources and support network to understand it. Because when you do, you will understand it 10 times quicker. When you first start to think about code, there is SO much that you can learn, that wasting several weeks on trying to understand what :: is in ruby for example, might not be the best use of your time. If you are stuck on something, try and understand it, get familiar with the terms, and when it is explained properly it will click. In the meantime, read around it, get a good general understanding of shell commands, git workflows, control flow… etc…. etc. Learn the basics and don’t get too bogged down with understanding everything you look at right away. At least not until the pre-course.
6. PRACTICE
This one speaks for itself. Use codeacademy, sign up to treehouse, read blogs and when you’re ready get on codewars. Discover for yourself as many learning resources as you can.
7. AVOID PERFECTION
Well, sort of.
8. LEARN HOW TO TAKE BREAKS
If you need a break, you’ve waited too long to take it. Learn how to take a break before you think you need one. This does two things. Firstly, it keeps motivation high. If you don’t think you deserve a break, there will be a part of you itching to get back to work out of what might just be guilt.
Maybe that’s just me.
Secondly, and more importantly, IT MAKES YOU LESS PRECIOUS ABOUT YOUR CODE. There’s an inertia to the work we do. Progress feels like going forward. Even though we know rationally that deleting code is the best step, there’s still an opportunity cost to it, whereby starting over feels worse than persisting; you’re sooo close to getting it to work. It takes energy to accept that it’s time to change. Breaks give you that energy.
Like this:
Like Loading…
Originally published at 36bcab.wordpress.com on November 8, 2015.
