Josh Kemp's No Degree, No Problem Review

I purchased Josh Kemp's No Degree, No Problem yesterday for around $10 on Amazon.  You can go check it out from his website if you are interested.  The book does something that very few others have attempted - turning the copious books, e-books, tutorials, and websites available for early coders into a doable program.  For this, I am profoundly thankful.  It seems like the coding world believes that there are not enough tutorials out there and so they keep making more.  However, a book like this is maybe more useful because it makes some sense out of what is there.

When you get this book, you are paying for two basic things (1) Kemp's story and (2) practical advice.  Kemp's story is an interesting one about how he became committed to becoming a coder.  Long story short, he faces a lot of obstacles and continues on when most of us would have quit.  However, what is so inspiring about it is that he makes it without a strong background in the field.  He learns and networks on his own after recounting some truly dismal experiences with coding boot camps.

After his story, Kemp lays out his "Roadmap".  The roadmap should not be confused with a degree program or a course in how to become a rock solid coder with deep knowledge in everything.  The argument Kemp makes (convincingly, I think) is that you could endlessly study and just being a master of one of these skills will not get you hired.  He is interested in offering you the foundational skills that can get you into that job.  Kemp accurately points out that a junior developer's main job is to learn anyway and so following his program will get you the starting tools you need to make it through the interview and build those skills later.

This text is practical and pragmatic in the extreme.  It is broken down into very easily digestible parts with very specific directions.  Nothing is left unsaid in terms of the program of study.  Kemp lays out how much time you need to study, what kind of computer you need, and speaks to any costs you will incur.  The roadmap itself is very complete and features discussions of your own programming environment, the best tutorials and in what order to do them, why become a Rails developer, and even how to network and market yourself.

If you are looking for the quickest path to becoming employable, I think this is probably it.  It is very complete and this is a very pragmatic job-centric text.  Everything focuses on the dream of a junior developer job.  If you want a philosophical discussion of coding or something that will lead you to true mastery this is not it.  He has one clear goal here and that's what you are getting with the book.

There are, however, a few drawbacks.  This book features only one real track and he strongly encourages a Mac.  If you don't have a Mac, this will not work as well for you.  He also only covers Rails.  This is taking you specifically to Ruby on Rails web development.  If you want to do something else, you will only get value from the story and some of the basic interviewing tips.  There are a few basic errors in grammar etc throughout the book which the Amazon reviewers really harp on.  I did not find them to be that egregious, though I do read problematic writing from students in training as my current job.

Overall, I would recommend the book as a strong blueprint for making sense of the vast pool of resources out there.  Kemp gives them to you in an order which they can be digested.  I am using it as my overall guide as I learn to code, though I am adding a few other things along the way as well.  Ultimately, I will come back and post an addendum to this review when I finish his program and let you know what I thought, but if you want a practical guide to the coding resources and a plan for working through them to become a Rails developer proceed.

Tentative Plan of Action

After a long and fitful sleep, I have come up with a plan of action.  I am going to concentrate on doing Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails tutorial when I have time to really think and concentrate.  The Code Academy tutorial was frustrating to me and did not include nearly the level of detail I wanted.
However, when I have somewhat distracted time I am going to continue to work through Code Academy's intro lessons to other languages so I have some sense of them.  First up: Python!  This way, I will be learning Ruby on Rails in a meaningful way, but also getting a wider breadth of knowledge as I go.

Based on my estimates, I am around 30 hours into learning coding so far.

Code Academy Stats
Skills: Ruby (Complete)
Make a Website (Complete)
Python: 3%
Ruby on Rails 24%

347 Points
41 Badges

Hartl's Tutorial:  Begins Tonight!

Deep or Wide?

As I close in on completing my Ruby tutorial on CodeAcademy (69%!), I am pondering what to do next.  Should I try to work more in Ruby to develop a deep knowledge or should I work through a series of Code Academy tutorials so I have an idea which I will like the best.  I am quite sure the CodeAcademy tutorials will not get me to a functional level in any language so I am seeing them as more of an extended preview.  At this point, I am thinking I will work through at least the major lnaguages on CodeAcademy including Rails, Python, JavaScript, and maybe a few more.  Once I have some idea of how they all work, I will begin to specialize.  After all, there is no rush here.

I have also read that it is crucial to begin to make your own programs which seems pretty scary to me right now 'but I totally understand why this is the way to learn.  Living in the happy bubble world in CodeAcademy is fun, but I have already encountered lessons I have forgotten because I did not work seriously enough with them and just moved through the lessons.

Am I doing it wrong?