It’s a widely-known fact that classroom studies are not enough, especially when you’re learning programming. You need to be able to conceptualise the flow and structure in your mind, independent of any one programming language, and actually apply that to make a working prototype. And formal education isn’t exactly the way to do this, unless of course you’re studying in an Ivy League university.
When I got really hooked on to programming, it took me a really long time to be able to pick up any technology and apply it to projects. Part of this had to do with it being extremely hard to start with any new technology for a beginner with fewer resources and virtually nobody to ask queries (except Google). I’m sure that if I had the kind of network I do at this time, things would have been very different. Learning would have been quicker.
Which is part of the reason why I’m starting the 10x: Programming community. The name comes from the popular TV show Silicon Valley, where someone is called a ‘10X-er’ if they are able to be ten times more productive than everyone else. Let’s take 2016 to become 10x more productive than we are right now.
Over the course, I’ll be sending out newsletter every month with goals for the month. It could be learning a new language, making a website, getting familiar with UX design, or just about anything else that would be beneficial at improving yourself. This community isn’t for experienced programmers, nor for people who haven’t had any prior experience with programming. If you’re an experienced programmer, I encourage you to join the Facebook group which I talk about below.
The monthly newsletters will have goals for learning something new, challenges, and cool stuff you should know about. Learning resources will be provided for every goal that will be sent out in the newsletters.
There’s also a Facebook group where members can engage among themselves to help each other out, share cool stuff, and vote on what they’d like to learn in the coming months.
Another thing that I’ve noticed is when learning something new, motivation levels stay consistent if people are learning something in a group and are discussing things among themselves and helping each other out. One primary goal for this community is to get your friends to sign up for the community as well and achieve the monthly goals and tackle the challenges while collaborating with each other and helping each other out.
Over time, I’m planning to have experienced people teach stuff over webcasts and have meetups, and possibly a Hackathon at the end of the year.
Feel free to reach out in case of any question about how this is supposed to work, you're willing to help me manage this, you're interested in hosting a webcast, or just want to say hi. I'll be at umanghome+10x@gmail.com.