That was a great read, the clear thinking about needing to know "why" before "how" is very insightful.
I would be curious to hear any views on taking a purely javascript approach to this same process.
I ask because I love python but often think it may be silly to take the time to get really good at it.
Ever since node.js became a real option it has been possible to do full stack development using javascript. Why not take that approach, thereby only learning one language, reducing the number of new things you have to assimilate all at once?
My thinking was that the documentation isn't nearly as strong for Node as it is for Django. And also JavaScript doesn't have all the same libraries for the backend. But certainly being good at JavaScript is very highly valued in the marketplace right now, so if you have other technical friends who can help you then this might make sense. But they might literally need to be willing to spend a couple dozen hours sitting next to you while you're learning Node, which isn't always trivial to set up. But in general I'd still recommend just learning Python, because I think the advantages of knowing you'll be successful outweigh whatever extra work there might be.
Woah, I followed pretty much the same roadmap as you, except I took the (Python-based) CS600 class at OpenMIT instead of Udacity's CS101. And my year was 2013. I really enjoyed Udacity's CS253 on web development, even if the particular technologies introduced in the course aren't very popular.
Since then, I've been switching gears from Python to JavaScript by learning Node and Angular. I don't view Python as a waste of time, because I think it is a great first language to learn particularly for CS fundamentals. Starting out, I may have been discouraged learning JavaScript as a first language. OOP isn't so straight-forward in JS, and there aren't as many learning resources for algorithms/CS-theory stuff in JS as there are in other languages. Also, learning server-side web development fundamentals with Node.js may have been a struggle, perhaps because there aren't as many resources devoted to beginners and docs as there are with Python/Django. Plus the asynchronous stuff. I'm struggling to learn AngularJS, although it's just straight up difficult I think.
I still need to figure out how to interview well. I have a decent GitHub/portfolio, so I'm generating a good number of interviews despite having 0 professional experience in the field and no CS degree (I have a math degree though). I've had about 20 technical phone screens/interviews not including take-home assignments, and I'm getting better at them. But I'm clearly not there yet, since nobody has offered me a job.
"But in general I'd still recommend just learning Python, because I think the advantages of knowing you'll be successful outweigh whatever extra work there might be."
This 100000x over. I commented on your blog so I wont put all that here. But I have tired to learn to code without any assistance from others for years. I have failed over and over, tried every language, I always get stuck, and while I can find help on google/stack etc it just eventually overwhelms me. I am going to try again using your guide and hope that I can be successful.
I would be curious to hear any views on taking a purely javascript approach to this same process.
I ask because I love python but often think it may be silly to take the time to get really good at it.
Ever since node.js became a real option it has been possible to do full stack development using javascript. Why not take that approach, thereby only learning one language, reducing the number of new things you have to assimilate all at once?