Update and more learning materials

Of course I can't begin to say how greatly impressed I am with Pluralsight and I am very happy to be a customer. Some do say that books don't help them learn. They actually do work for me and I think that they are great supplements to self-education. You hear a lot that even seasoned developers (and IT professionals - because I am one of those) should be reading a technical book every month. And there was some statistic floating around that 90% of developers read only one or less technical books per year. I can't give solid evidence to that statistic but I understand why it's important. It's not really that you have to learn comprehensively from a book or that a book a lone is going to teach you everything you need to know about a certain technology but, at least for me, books are a great way to get introduced to a technology. I just prefer a more intimate and professional experience. There are plenty of articles and free tutorials about certain technologies but of course I love spending money and supporting the developers who work very hard to provide this material. So with that, Pluralsight has been such a great way to see examples of principles and concepts put into action. Reading is great for me and there are even examples to follow along with in the books but to see a programmer go through the steps while talking about the technology - that's just effective. But I do also see Pluralsight as a supplement for my self education. You still have to do some heavy lifting by reading more in depth material on exactly how something works and just look at it on a page and then of course opening up Visual Studio (or your editor/IDE of choice) and start playing with it! I wish my impostor disorder wasn't so strong sometimes. I wish I would have developed more patience and discipline as I was growing up. Well maybe this journey is making up for it. Because the amount of patience and discipline I'm having to learn and exert is overwhelming. Things don't happen. Look at your phone right now. That didn't just happen! A lot of users may go look at a website ... you log onto Twitter every day.. and it could really look easy! It could look ... just essential! But when  a developer see's a new project and is impressed ... you already know what kind of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice went into creating what you're using. That's something worth working for. That's something worth contributing to. That's a real job and a real calling. The power to create and understand. Technology really is more philosophical than it is technical. So when I think that I don't have what it takes .. I'm reminding myself that my first blog post was April 12th .... it's May 26th. Someone tell me to shutup! I can't even use Git yet. I'm learning source control now. I'm digging into code. I'm frustrated trying to make sure every minute is utilized wisely. When I watch a Pluralsight video and am amazed at how the code flows so fluently....and then I hear them say "I've been in software development for 27 years" ... yeah I'm on my first half ass year(learned JavaScript and HTML/CSS in summer of 2013 and took a web development course/second real month. Plus I'm in College, something that others don't have at their disposal. So yes, the struggle/motivation is real. It's not really about what resources are at your disposal but how you utilize them. I don't have any huge projects right now because I'm spending hours making console applications learning the language internals of C# ... eagerly making my way through ASP.NET MVC and then to Client Side MVC... then later on I hope to have some great things being produced and maintained for my portfolio as well as other clients.

So yeah ... it's going to be pretty crazy looking back on this blog after a year. Because I'm confident that I will say "Yeah, there was nothing to worry about. This s!@# takes time, dude." Anyway I'm having a blast and love writing way too much ... this is because I talk too much.

So lets get on with the second part:

Education is good m'Kay? We have all these resources available to us and know which ones work best (as stated above) so I'd like to let you in on a series that you may find very helpful. This series has great reviews all over the web, including Amazon and I am finding very useful because of how comprehensive it is.

So I use Pluralsight and as for C# I have been reading a book by John Sharp called Visual C# 2013. While watching courses from the Amazing Jesse Liberty, Scott Allen, and Dan Wahlin - this book has broken everything down to it's core and has explained concepts one right after another and I have found that's how I learn best so I would recommend books from this author. I looked for the author of this book on Twitter but couldn't find him.

So a great series to check out is the Apress Professional - Adam Freeman.

This author does provide an extensive collection on books from the fundamentals of programming (HTML5, jQuery 2.0, JavaScript, C# 5.0) and then moves to frameworks (ASP.NET MVC 5.0, MVC Client, Angular JS)

I own both Pro ASP.NET MVC 5 and Pro Angular JS.

 He starts with introducing the technology and putting it into context with its uses and history and then jumps straight into building an application. And of course if you're new to the technology, you have no idea what's going on. But you go through and see how this application is built and then he goes into exquisite detail about how each component works and why you did what you did. After learning about how the application works by using the fundamentals of the language or framework, you then go into learning in detail about each concept he just explained. (Routes, Controllers, Views, Directives, etc.,)

I'm not sure if what he does this in every book but in these two you actually build the same application. And of course that's amazing because you get to witness and take part in building the same application on two different languages/platforms. And at least to me that's really engaging and effective. Because as a software infant I don't know where my loyalties will lie. I know that in this economy you need to know as much as possible and be willing to learn and expand your knowledge constantly. But everyone has a place they belong. Will mine be backend or frontend? Client side like Ember, Angular, Knockout? Or will it be C# ASP.NET and Ruby on Rails? I don't know where I'll end up. But I know I won't regret getting there.

Because I'm going to take a piece out of each book and experience many things along the way. Development is a craft. Things were kicking in until I really started thinking about it this way. Like a blacksmith, woodworker, mechanic, musician, this world is a devotion and a craft. It's almost artistic. It's not something you can read a book on and then get an exam and go clock in. You have to live and practice, honing your skill, almost like an art, to make yourself better everyday so that you're developing the highest quality product possible for the world. People are using what you do. They are relying on what you do. You couldn't do anything but breathe and drink water if it wasn't for a computer program. This is our world.

And I plan to master it.

 class SeeyaLater!
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string farewell = "Happy coding everyone!";
            string Farewell = "Until next time!";

            Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", farewell, Farewell);
        }
    }
}