Greetings all….

Some of you know I’ve been participating in the #100DaysOfCode campaign from some of the previous posts on this blog. I’m learning to code in Python, and though this is the third attempt over the last few years, this campaign, as well as a totally different outlook than before, has allowed me to travel further along than the last two attempts. The accountability (if you will) to this Twitter-based campaign has worked well, broadened my network of those striving to do the same, and has provided a good dose of regular motivation. That’s all well and fine, but after 23 days in, and coming across a few articles, I’m realizing what I am missing (which is not specifically campaign related). What missing is the long term goal.

I listened to a podcast two weeks ago that REALLY walked down my street. In short, it’s the story about a current developer who is a little older than me, but the key, common characteristic is age – and how many figure that at a certain age, it’s too late to accomplish certain things. After listening to it, it provided (and still does) great motivation to debunk that attitude. If your interested, you can listen (or read the transcript): I’m 56 and learning to code. Here’s an epic beat-down of my critical inner self.

That said, I’ve decided to step back and provide some answers to some unknown questions. The journey to accomplishment involves sequence that I actually heard a developer talk about in a podcast two weeks ago that really hit hone with me. That led me to the questions in my outline, which look like this:

The Sequence
1. Goal Setting
2. Hard Work
3. Pain
4. Enjoyment
5. Goal Accomplished

The Questions
Q1 – What’s the motivation for me to learn Python (or any other coding language)?
A1 – The mptivation is to learn Python is that its specialty includes scientific computing. I want to be able to apply scientific computing to help solve problems I may have the opportunity to in my career at some point. Secondly it is to master a language that I could use in a career change or consulting scenario. Thirdly, it is to be the base coding language for supporting technical hobbies like Arduino project development

Q2 – What short and long term goals I hope to achieve?
A2a – Short Term: To become proficient enough where I can code programs to solve a variety of problems, contribute to open source projects and develop websites using the Flask frameoork (or similar framework that I finally decide will be most beneficial). To learn to apply the well know scientific computing libraries to help in coding well written programs.

A2b – Long Term: Provide services to those in need, do some form of consulting. Increase regular contributions to open-source projects

Q3 – What methods/activities do I plan to execute to in order to achieve the goals?
A3 –

Q4 – How do I plan to execute self-management (in order to most efficiently use the time available to me) to apply the methods and activities?
A4 –

The third and fourth questions may appear simple to answer but it’s the execution that I really need to make sure is realistic. So, here I am. It’s Saturday night, and I will get to some coding after I publish this, but will take the rest of the weekend to make sure I answer the questions. This really needs to get done, because doing tutorials, learning, and even working on my current coding project is fine, but without a realistic and tangible end in sight, I may not be taking the best approach.

We all want to arrive at the destination, but we want to make it the trip efficient and positive (despite roadblocks, detours, setbacks, etc). I strive to, though I may not always achieve, “work smarter and not harder”

Thanks for the read….

Fresh.