[thelist] how did you learn?

Lauri Vain lauri_lists at tharapita.com
Tue Jun 29 12:38:37 CDT 2004


Hi, Paul, 

> OK, I have a question for all those developers out there who
> didn't spend 3 years at university / college to gain
> professional web development skills.
> 
> How did you first begin your learning? Did you pick up a book?
> Go to online forums? Ask a friend? Take a short course? 

Weeee, this thread could make a fun article (nothing more, nothing less)
:) 

Personally, I started with the very basics eight years ago when I was
still in my teens. It was the kind of age, when I liked to think that
one can get all the nutrition in the world by eating chips & coke. Now
that I am a full-grown man, I know, how wrong I was - you really need to
have chocolate and pancakes as well. 

I was involved in competition shooting and each time after my training,
several times a week, I went to my dad's office, with whom we went home.
Usually I had to wait for him for about an hour, so I browsed the web.
The first question that popped into my mind was - how on earth does this
work?! So I started reading about the internet, the web, HTML and, of
course, having a lot of fun by using dry ice and plastic bottles. 

A few months into my learning process, my Commodore, which had a high
tech tape reader instead of disc/CD drive, was replaced. It was replaced
by a PC for Christmas. I also got a magazine accompanied by a CD. It had
games and a copy of Frontpage on it. I didn't have any cool electric
cars/trains or other such toys at that time (they were all broken -
well, I had to find out how they worked, didn't I?!), so I spent quite a
lot of the time, when I was supposed to study English and art history,
behind my PC. I played games for a week and then started to create my
own webpages with Frontpage (Yuk!), Notepad etc. 

Then came other tools and techniques (Dreamweaver, Notepad, Flash,
command line tools, Notepad, Editplus :)). 

At one point in my learning process, I read through the source codes of
ALL the pages on the web. No, really! Really!! Well, that's what it felt
like anyway. Couldn't get enough of it. I was a maniac. I was a source
code cruncher. Took all the code on the web to bits and pieces and found
out, how it worked. Then read a lot of tutorials, standards etc. Then
read all the source on the web again. 

Also, got much of what I needed to know in the beginning from books.
Books like "PHP Programming - from Professional to Professional", which
was great. 

Developed my personal static webpage for a couple of years (and got
really-really interested in web scripting). Quite a few years later, a
friend of mine referred me to a web development company who outsourced a
lot of their work. They needed more programmers and I was it. They loved
what I did and knew and that the user and client were my highest
priorities. At one point they wanted to hire me full time, but since I
was still finishing high-school, the second best option was to start up
my own company, through which I could work for them. 

So, when I started doing web applications through my company, my
repetitive customer base got to a decent size. It all started with
websites only, but it quickly evolved into complex intranets, extranets,
company management systems etc. Some of my clients came from referrals
by word of mouth, others are from this and other lists - mostly
designers and some programmers, for whom I do subcontracting. At two
points, I actually took a permanent position in two companies who had
projects that were over half a year long. 

When you are still making your first steps, though - you can learn a lot
from this list. Then, of course, you can give a lot back to the list -
it's a neverending circle. My recommendation is to read every thread on
this list - evolt "rulez" :D  I've have been with the gang from the very
beginning (something like the 200th member) and have loved almost every
second of it - learning and helping alike (although have been bit too
busy to do that the last year or two). Like Mattias and other people who
have contributed to this thread, I too let the artistic people do the
layouts. I then take the HTML file and create a database system to make
it all work. 

It's very much, like Rob said - "It was a childhood passion that grew
into an adult profession." I've been with the web from when it started
to matter and still am with it today - full time. Loved every minuted of
the learning, working, and teaching. I'm currently relatively near to my
Bachelor's and Master's degree at the university, which is fun too
(oftentimes, anyway - other times you teach the professors yourself :p).
Sometimes can't believe, though, how it all started - coding websites by
hand, then quickly logging onto the internet (using a state of the art
28.8 bits per seconds modem, which was able to transfer about 2-3 bytes
per second). Then admired my webpage and looked for new information. And
then, of course, I got phone bills, which would easily rival the annual
budget of many third world countries. 

"It was a childhood passion that grew into an adult profession" - love
that quote! 

Cheers, 
Lauri


> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org 
> [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Paul Bennett
> Sent: 29. juuni 2004. a. 8:40
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: [thelist] how did you learn?
> 
> 
> OK, I have a question for all those developers out there who
> didn't spend 3 years at university / college to gain
> professional web development skills.
> 
> How did you first begin your learning? Did you pick up a book?
> Go to online forums? Ask a friend? Take a short course? 
> 
> The reason I ask is that I am considering developing a training
> product and want to see if it is at least viable before sinking
> countless hours into it :)
> 
> I took the 'short course' option, although it was 9 months and a
> bit more focussed on sys admin stuff than I needed. (I still
> have dreaded memories about setting up and configuring NT
> server)
> 
> Feel free to answer off-list if you like.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Paul Bennett
> 
> 
> 
> 		
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