My Top take-away after learning how to build Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
I have been following the Odin project for about a week when I switched my focus to study a little bit of machine learning. Initially, my idea was to dabble my feet in as many technology stacks as much as possible so I can make an informed decision on which path to take as a self-taught developer. For about 6 months I was stuck between going full-time machine learning or going with full-stack web development. I decided to do both at the same time which in my opinion makes sense if you have a lot of time and no other responsibilities but that was not true for my situation. I have bills to pay and limited time available. Casting my mind back, I think I made an emotional decision to go with the two rather than a rational one.
Eventually, I had to swallow the bitter pill and make the difficult decision to go full-stack web development as the field is matured and I happen to love building things.
I picked off where I left on the Odin project and created this app. I realized for about 3 months of not coding in javascript I was a little rusty on HTML and CSS as well. I had to review everything again before I was set to start the project.
Initially, I didn’t make any plans I just zoomed into coding and started solving the problems as I went on. This is a huge mistake and I wasted a lot of time using this approach. What I realized helped me a lot was to draw out a concise plan of what I really want to do on a piece of paper for the day and then chronologically follow those tasks. This way you have a baseline to measure your sense of progress and the time investment on each part of the outlined tasks you have on your plan. I also noticed that taking breaks during coding helps a ton. Because sometimes, you may have difficulty attacking a problem and you may spend close to an hour to crack the challenge but after about 10 or 15 minutes break, the solution just pops up in your head. It’s amazing how the mind works. What I do now is taking a break every hour so I can give my mind the time to diffuse as I go about solving problems with code.
The process of writing down your plans and attacking each problem chronologically also indicates to you where your knowledge is lacking and how to learn to improve it. It helps reinforce deliberate practice which is key for remembering and improving your art of coding and solving challenges.
Finally, I would like to say “Do not get discouraged when you get stuck”. consider taking a break and do something entirely different from coding. something that relaxes your mind and puts you in a relaxed state. I have seen this work wonders in coming out with creative solutions. Do not forget to reach out for help from more experienced developers. There is always someone out there willing to help.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank the Odin project team for such an amazing curriculum and community. I have learned a lot from this project and I am not even halfway through the curriculum. This is by far the best course I have taken on programming and learning so far.
I will sign off here and I will be back with my top insights I will discover on my next project from the Odin project. Stay tuned
