The easy answer is: practice.

But that takes time and dedication, and who has the energy for that kind of endeavour in a world with Amazon Prime?!

So instead I keep half-starting ambitious coding projects and inevitably get frustrated with myself, put them on the backburner, and kind of… Collapse into a heap of self-deprecation. I’m quite good at that last part.

I’m trying a few new small-scale initiatives in order to try and get back into the ‘swing’ of ‘things’, as it were. I WILL DOCUMENT THEM HERE FOR POSTERITY.

  • Codewars/Hackerrank/etc. Coding Problems – A good way to practice the fundamentals and expand my thinking in regards to best coding practices when using Ruby/JS/etc.
  • Learn a new JS framework (JUST ONE AT A TIME) – Probably going to work on learning React, since that’s one of the… Three(?) JS frameworks I was attempting to learn simultaneously (Note: Don’t do that. It’s not smart. Patience, young grasshopper.)
  • Learn a new programming language – Working on Python currently. I think it will help me work through my problems with thinking ‘programmatically’, where my brain has some trouble parsing the simpler coding concepts into the more involved process of application building and testing.
  • Work on a personal portfolio project (JUST ONE AT A TIME. AGAIN.) – I’d like to resume work on Curator, and I think I have the appropriate API knowledge and Rails skills to get the basic structure and API integration/OAuth credentials/etc. to work. I mean, the bulk of it is there in some form or another in the uniD app.
  • READ STUFF – I’m really good at reading words. Programmatic concepts, not as much, but reading them is making me think more critically about coding and how to apply more advanced concepts to my knowledge base.

I think that this is a pretty comprehensive plan of attack. The trouble is sticking to it and not letting myself get discouraged so easily. I also need to make sure to pace myself and set reasonable milestones. Maybe after I’ve gotten into a better place, self-esteem-wise, I’ll start doing the freelance thing again. It’s really difficult to sell yourself as a freelance web developer when you have no confidence in yourself. That’s a tip, from me to you. You’re welcome.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. I’ll get there eventually.