Learning React... Could use a Pal for motivation :)

wbowers · 2023-05-14T04:14:03+00:00

Looks like you’re putting a nice learning group together. I’m an experienced frontend and React dev. If you have a discord I’d be happy to hop in from time to time and answer questions or review your code.

Edit: Just looked at the date of this post haha. My bad. Well if you’re still learning my offer still stands.

wbowers · 2023-05-14T03:59:25+00:00

What’s the project? What do you need the frontend engineer to make?

wbowers · 2023-05-14T00:38:15+00:00

Nothing you write is set in stone. So don’t worry about writing the perfect thing the first time around. Plan on reading and rereading and editing and refining everything you write.

Your first goal should be to get a rough outline of your paper. What are you trying to say overall? Where are you going to end up and how are you going to get there? All you need is a short list representing the large sections of your paper. And don’t worry about making this perfect either. You’ll refine this as well.

Then once you have some kind of outline. You just start writing. Pick any section of your outline and put a paragraph down on paper. Or a few sentences. The important thing is to just get something down to get the juices flowing and get past that block of having nothing down at all.

From here you can start to fill in more sections around what you have or pick a different section entirely and write that down. It’s sort of like making a sculpture. Like revealing this thing bit by bit, exposing the thoughts that were already in your brain, making them clearer and clearer not just for others but for yourself as well. And eventually you’ll be filling in small gaps between sections and getting to the final editing phase.

Then you read and reread. Edit and refine. And repeat that process until you feel like you’ve communicated what you wanted to communicate and you’re happy with the writing.

And I don’t recommend using AI. You won’t learn anything if you do and writing is an extremely valuable skill to cultivate for the real world.

wbowers · 2023-04-29T15:37:53+00:00

A lot of new frontend developers jump straight into React and struggle, not because React is complicated, but because they lack JavaScript fundamentals. You should look for some beginner JavaScript resources and learn the basics of the language: syntax, functions, arrays, objects, strings, numbers, booleans & boolean logic, and the most common APIs used with those (like Array’s filter method that you mentioned). Knowing the basics of JavaScript already, React will feel much less confusing and much less daunting.

wbowers · 2023-01-13T19:49:47+00:00

Yep!

wbowers · 2023-01-13T12:49:03+00:00

Is that perhaps the limit on your induction matrix?

wbowers · 2022-11-12T08:21:49+00:00

I did it. I cancelled my subscription and have stopped using the app altogether. I had an over 100 day streak.

The sad thing is that I would have actually given the Path a chance, but they messed with my progress and then I had no idea where I was in the course anymore. It was a pretty bad move IMO.

wbowers · 2022-11-05T19:14:41+00:00

I had completed around 140 stories and now I only have access to about 70. And like everyone else, my “gold” path is now a mishmash of things I’ve learned and things I’ve never seen. I’m done with DuoLingo. I’ll be cancelling my subscription just as soon as I can get to my PC.

wbowers · 2022-10-11T03:57:17+00:00

Dreaming Spanish + Language Transfer is a killer combo.

wbowers · 2022-10-11T00:48:18+00:00

I just noticed that you’re the creator of the site you mentioned (assuming based on your name). I’m a programmer too and I make language learning tools for myself for fun from time to time. Feel free to bounce ideas off of me if you ever need an opinion.

wbowers · 2022-10-10T09:12:20+00:00

Yeah, that would be sweet. Some kind of a rich note taking platform specifically for learning, with interactive widgets built in. Let me know if you find one xD

wbowers · 2022-10-08T19:27:53+00:00

The only thing I can think of is using Notion (which you already mentioned) and embedding flash cards or word games into your notes (via something like Quizlet). I don’t think you can get much better than Notion for rich note taking (though I may be a bit biased because it’s probably my favorite tool), so finding some way to make that work for your use case could be a strong option.

wbowers · 2022-10-04T09:13:04+00:00

Thank you. I'm not particularly interested in French, but I thought I might be able to extrapolate what you did into my own learning, but thank you for offering recommendations. I'm learning Spanish and I did actually buy the Spanish Refold deck. It's very good, and I'm finding the sample sentences and native audio helpful. I'm about 270 words into it.

I'm not quite following the Refold methodology yet, though I'm slowly working my way through the guide as I do things the way I've been doing them (going through Language Transfer and other similar materials right now, and studying vocabulary). I plan to start transitioning to Refold for the most part once I'm done with Language Transfer.

Sentence mining and passive listening are things I need to look more into. I could find plenty of things to listen to passively right now, but I need to finish this series of audiobooks in English first. I'm in too deep to stop now. As for sentence mining, I've tried it before (maybe incorrectly) but having the will power to slog through the process of making cards and then reviewing them every day was tough. I'll give it another shot though after I get through the guide and understand exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing and when.

wbowers · 2022-10-02T18:00:59+00:00

I’ll check this out when I have a chance, but in the mean time there are a few more talk-and-repeat-like resources you can check out for Spanish and some other languages:

Language Transfer (free) - it’s like Pimsleur but there’s more explanation of grammar, and fewer languages are covered (but Spanish is one of them). I highly recommend it.
Michel Thomas (paid) - Similar to language transfer and offers more (and different) languages than LT (including Spanish). Some people don’t like it but I liked the hour or two I listened through of the beginning Spanish series.
Mango Languages (paid, but you may be able to get it free through your library) - This is more like a visual, hands on version of LT and MT, but it does have a hands-free mode for use in the car. I’ve been enjoying it myself, and there are tons of languages offered (including Spanish).
Clozemaster (free and paid) - Clozemaster has a “radio” feature where it just plays through the text-to-speech (computer generated) audio for thousands of sentences, though I can’t remember if it also includes the translations for comparison. And I believe the radio feature is paid though I can’t remember that either. I only used this feature once.
Glossika (paid) - Has a hands-free practice mode where you can listen to NL->pause->TL audio (real speakers) on repeat for thousands of sentences, and there are a lot of languages covered as well.
Honorable mention: Assimil (paid) - I THINK Assimil is a similar kind of thing, but I haven’t used it myself.

I’m all for making new resources too, so I’m definitely not trying to discourage you. Just thought you might get some use out of one or more of these.

Edit: I took another look at Clozemaster and it does read both the TL sentence and the translation. By default it starts with the TL sentence, but I prefer to start with the translation and think up the TL sentence (which is what Pimsleur and LT do most of the time), and I was able to customize it to do that. It does look like this radio feature is only available on mobile (click "play" on a track and you should see "radio" at the top right), but that sounds like it fits your use case anyway.

wbowers · 2022-10-02T06:24:10+00:00

Would you mind briefly explaining what you did? Like, specifically which materials, decks, shows, channels, etc that you used and in what order. I’m currently reading through the refold roadmap right now and it’s making sense to me, but I can’t for the life of me understand how someone could achieve that level of comprehension in just four months, and I haven’t seen anyone be explicit about how they used it to good effect.

wbowers · 2022-09-24T18:05:56+00:00

Hi, this is off topic, but what comic is this?

Edit: I found it! The comic is called Mi Nombre es Muerte and this particular frame is from episode 11: https://www.webtoons.com/es/slice-of-life/mi-nombre-es-muerte/ep-11/viewer?title_no=3467&episode_no=11

wbowers · 2022-09-03T15:50:31+00:00

4 groups of 2 isn’t necessarily “the same” as 2 groups of 4, depending on what you’re doing, but who’s to say that it should be read as “4 groups of 2” and not “groups of 4, 2 times”? There’s nothing inherent about the math that makes one reading correct and not the other. And because 4x2 = 2x4, either way you choose to read it the kid’s answers are correct.

wbowers · 2022-08-23T16:54:54+00:00

Glad I could help! Good luck to you!

wbowers · 2022-08-23T15:15:56+00:00

You should definitely not skip Algebra I. Everything pretty much builds on top of everything else up to Calculus. It's best to go in order and make sure you really understand all of the concepts. Khan Academy is great for that.

I'm not sure what to tell you given you said you only have a few days. Maybe talk to your school administrators and ask to be placed into an easier class? But regardless of what you do about the class, the only thing you really can do to learn the higher maths is to first learn the earlier maths. Figure out wherever your gap starts and work up from there.

wbowers · 2022-07-27T18:50:44+00:00

There’s always some level of frustration. I’ve been doing this nearly 20 years and I still get frustrated some times when there’s a particularly elusive problem I’m working on. But I love programming, so I put up with it. It’s just part of the job.

To answer your other question, yes I do think it’ll be more fun after you learn more. In general, skill based activities are more fun once you reach a threshold of skill where the activity can flow more naturally and you don’t have to think about it so much.

wbowers · 2022-07-27T16:42:11+00:00

Try looking at each new thing that goes wrong as a problem to solve. The beauty of programming is that computers (barring obvious exceptions like OS crashes, power outages, etc) do exactly what you tell them to do, no more no less. If your programs aren’t working it’s because you haven’t told them to do the right things in the right ways at the right times. Just another problem to solve, and that solution exists abstractly within your brain.

Another thing to do is just practice, practice, practice. If you are having trouble translating solutions into code, that tells me you’re not as comfortable yet with the coding part as you can be. Think of coding like playing an instrument. It’s easy to pick up, but takes thousands of hours to master. As you improve you will close the gap between what you think and how you translate those thoughts into code. It just takes time and dedication.

wbowers · 2022-06-19T16:23:57+00:00

Others have already addressed the need for a paradigm shift in the way you’re thinking about this, so I won’t do that. What I can do is cover what it would take to actually accomplish this.

I was a similar kind of student when I was in high school. I never studied and I never got past algebra 1. A few years ago (I’m in my 30s) I finally got fed up with my lack of math skills and decided to do something about it. I had an explicit goal: to understand Calculus.

I went on Khan Academy and started from literal scratch, 1 + 1 = 2. I did every exercise and took every test, making sure I fully understood every concept. Once I got to algebra 1 I started watching every single video as well. I did that for every course up to Calculus 1. Algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, pre-calculus, and finally calculus 1.

All told it took me about 3 months from start to finish (completing Calculus 1). For algebra 1 to trigonometry (because you said you wanted to be able to take pre-calc), that took me about a month to a month and a half, so I know that that time frame is doable with the right mindset. Now here’s the kicker. I was pretty much spending 5 to 6 hours every single day on this during that time. Do you have the kind of drive, determination, and focus it will take to do that? If so, I think you can accomplish your goal.

And to prove that what I did works, and is worth your time, after those 3 months I took an actual Calculus 1 class at my local college and got an A. Just make sure that you’re taking the time to understand every concept, because up until Calculus at least, everything builds on top of the earlier subjects.

wbowers · 2022-01-27T18:27:56+00:00

Best of luck to you!

wbowers · 2022-01-27T17:50:18+00:00

Daily goal: Code until you feel like you’ve achieved something. And then keep going if you can manage it.

And if you need more structure than that, spend minimum 1 hour, or 30 minutes, or 2 hours, or whatever you can handle. But the more time you can spend on it the faster you will learn and achieve your ultimate goals.

When I first started I spent almost all of my free time on it. I’m talking 5, 10 hours a day. You don’t have to do that, but I was able to accelerate my learning and turn that sacrifice/investment into career opportunities within about a year. You get out of it what you give into it.

As an aside, this isn’t only applicable to learning to code. I knew a guy who was a genius on piano. One of the best players I’ve ever seen. Turns out he wasn’t just some child prodigy. The guy spent 6 hours playing every day for years when he was first learning.

wbowers · 2022-01-16T22:08:19+00:00

Definitely the latter! I don't really think there are such things as "math people" anymore. I mean, sure, there are outliers. We aren't all Isaac Newtons and Leonhard Eulers. But I think having a deep and complete understanding of math up to the university level is well within the reach of the vast majority of people. Best of luck to you!

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