Day 1: Starting with the fundamentals. HTML and CSS

Last night I organized a little get-together for some of the classmates. Only 4 out of the 12 students showed up but it was really interesting to get to know a lot of where other classmates backgrounds were. I just wanted to get to know some people before the whole journey begins. It really helps to know some people before you start something like this.

To summarize the first day: it was awesome.

The first morning started out with a bunch of introductions as well as setting expectations for the class and how it was going to be run. Coding Dojo has a curriculum in which you watch online videos that they specifically made for the bootcamp. A lot of it is self-paced, which I really liked because I feel like I have a solid concept of what we're learning and don't like being slowed down.

After introductions, Michael started off with a lecture on http requests and responses and the anatomy of the internet. Even though this was pretty fundamental stuff, I actually learned a lot and really appreciated the fact that we are learning from the ground up. For example, I didn't know that when you make a request there is a list of domain names that are correlated with a server called the DNS (domain name server). I just thought... well... I didn't really think of it at all. But I'm glad I know it now. I have a feeling I will be experiencing a lot of these moments. Where you'll be taught something that you never really thought about but are nevertheless very important concepts to know.

Once we finished the lecture, we began our online curriculum. First things first, we learned HTML and CSS. The course has really been refined over the course of 4 years and Michael (the founder) has done a great job of trimming out the fat to make sure that our learning is accelerated as fast as possible. There are a million things to learning HTML and CSS but we honestly don't need to learn everything. Most developers don't even use them at all. So we learned what we need to learn, master it, then move on.

I blazed through the HTML portion and am currently making great progress on the CSS. I'm amazed at the brilliance of the curriculum. I honestly feel like I have a great understanding of how all the sections are designed. For our HTML/CSS assignment, we had to take a website and recreate it without using any source code. By doing so, I already have quite a solid understanding of CSS.

I really like the teaching style of Coding Dojo in that they really make you do projects on your own. And you really have to think critically in order to complete all the projects. I've done plenty of Codecademy, Treehouse, and Code School, but a lot of those things are just tutorials and you often become just a great typist (as Michael Choi pointed out) rather than become a great programmer.

At 5 o'clock we had an algorithm lecture and Michael Choi went over really basic things like variable assignments, conditional statements, and printing. Although it was really basic, he really wanted us to think like a computer. Rather than trying to figure out all the code in your head, he told us to take it line by line and process the information like a computer. I really like how this class is going so far. A lot of the focus is on the philosophy of learning and coding and I know it'll pay great dividends in the future.

Most of the classmates left at around 6 and everyone except me left at 7. Luckily there were 2 TAs there that were part of the previous class. We drank a couple beers and chatted about our lives and did a lot of connecting. After a bit of socializing, I went back to my assignment because I hate leaving things unfinished. I'm really trying to stay ahead of the class, so that when we hit the harder topics, I'll have much more time to really digest the things that I don't understand, especially when I hit node.js.

Anyways I finished at around 9pm and headed home. I'm really excited to really more and continue to make great progress on the assignments and my personal learning. But I definitely need to get good sleep if I want to do so!

Oh and I did manage to ask what percentage of students get black-belt certified. Michael said about 10 to 15% of students get certified within the 12-weeks, however you can stay longer to get certified. You are able to take the exams as many times as you need. I am definitely gunning for the black belt. 

For those who don't know, Red-belt certification means you demonstrate expertise in 1 programming language. Black-belt means expertise in 2. I'm extremely motivated to learn and have committed myself to this. I hope I can keep the fire and the motivation strong!