I'm guessing that at sometime in the last few years you heard someone talking about code. You probably know someone who spends their day on the computer writing the code that makes our internet such a lovely place to website watch...window shop...peruse...
There are all types of computer programming 'languages'. Some, like HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you probably have heard of . While others, such as PHP or Ruby, may be less familiar to you.
Ok, so Kanye will never understand.
Even though sometimes technology advances faster than we can keep up, it's a good idea to at least be familiar with what tools are used to build the places where we spend a lot of our time. Similar to when you brush up on the native tongue when visiting another country, you should also learn the language of the sites, apps and interactive websites that are speaking to you right now.
Anyone remember myspace? C'mon, you know you do.
Remember those friends you had that were changing the text color and font on their pages? Images centered in the about me section?? WIZARDS!! Actually, they were just coding! Of course, that was just some super basic stuff but it's a starting place none-the-less. Earlier this year The Guardian had an article by Dan Crow titled Why Every Child Should Learn to Code and while I am no longer a child (physically) it got me thinking that maybe I should refresh my sweet myspace skills before i get left in the dust.
So what's next? Where does one go to learn computer talk? Well, the computer of course! I tried reading a few how-to blogs and watching some youtube videos on coding but without anywhere to actually practice or anyone to tell me if I was doing it right, I wasn't getting very far. That's when I stumbled onto
The first task I did was 'Make A Website'. But not just any website, I re-made the Airbnb page! That may sound like something you need a lot of tech knowledge to do but other than my crazy cool myspace page (seriously, that sh*t was legit) I had no idea what I was doing. I found that I was actually enjoying what I was learning and I was finding completing skills to be very rewarding. It's nearly six months later and I'm still loving what I'm learning and I feel like I have a small grasp on what goes on behind the screens. I can work at my own pace, it saves my progress each step of the way so nothing is lost if I forget to 'save' and it's constantly updated with new learning material. Plus, if I ever need a crash course in one specific language, I can dive right in and skip the things I don't need.