And onto the meat and potatoes of the Udemy course, about 9 hours completed (approx 80 remaining). Learnt a lot and loving the course overall. Next up Jonas makes a point of defining a goal for yourself during this course as a source of motivation, and it really made me think. Why am I doing this?
30mins a day was the deal, and 1 week in I have had 1 day off (Saturday) so far, not too bad I think. Some days I did closer to 2 hours and the work came easily, and then there's nights like tonight, struggling just to hit the 30mins. Similar to Jonas' recommendation of setting a clear goal, one thing has become clear; when setting an arbitrary agreement with oneself such as daily learning, your 'Why' needs to exist and it better have some weight. This has been something weighing on my mind since I started.
On one hand I have a decade's worth of determination (re: desperation) to progress with JavaScript, fantasising about the apps I could build and the ideas I could bring to life. On the other, I'm 36 years old and will likely never leverage this knowledge in a career orientated manner. So is it a hobby? Is it just for fun? Is it even ridiculous to entertain the idea of a career change? Is that even what I want?
My current position is a business owner, more specifically a team leader, project manager, and account manager. In otherwords, client and team facing & not writing code in any fashion right now. Perhaps that's why this code learning has been fun and exciting, it's something different and exciting. Coding is the antithesis of my current role, is that why I'm enjoying it so much? Was this the path I should have taken?
I'm still trying to figure all that out (yikes), but for now I'll set a goal:
By the end of 2022, I will have gained enough JavaScript knowledge to confidently build my weightloss tracking/calculating/graphing app, self hosted and functional with user and data storage. My knowledge will be at a level that would allow me to contribute to my team in a meaningful and legitimate manner, and will be prepared enough to begin React.
Making a dent in things now, excited to get into the deeper JavaScript learnings. I expect the course from here on in to be far more difficult.
Just gonna send it.
PS: Any beginner devs out there want to build something with me, reach out! Might be fun to collab on something :)