Webdev from Zero to Hero in 3–6 months? — You need the right mindset! (1 of 3)
Hello! How nice to see you! It means that you have read my previous article and have decided to follow my little adventure. Or maybe you came here by chance: if so, I suggest you to read the “zero” article, which explains you a little more in detail who I am and what we’re going to discover togheter.
Let’s proceed with some simple technicalities that can give you a little more context, in case you are not in the trade. The world of web programming is divided into two categories:
- front-end;
- back-end.
The front-end contains (roughly) everything that the end user sees and can interact with, the graphics and content: font, the size of the font, color of the page, images, the blue button at the top and so on. The back-end, on the other hand, contains everything behind it: databases, authentication functions and all those operations that the end user does not see but that make the entire program work.
A developer, therefore, can choose to “specialize” in one of the two branches, becoming respectively a Front-end Developer or a Back-end Developer; otherwise he may not have a specific propensity, deciding to specialize equally on both sides, digi-evolving into the mystical creature known as the Full-Stack Developer.
This first month we tackled the Front-end, specifically using the most modern languages for that purpose (for your reference: HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript). Almost all of the existing landing pages on the web can be recreated with sufficient knowledge of these three languages.
If you like to spend hours choosing the color palette that suits you, if you have spent hours decorating your home on The Sims without ever being happy and if in general you are an esthete, you can certainly work with your imagination, using your personal taste but, above all, have fun.
And in fact, the thing that immediately struck me was that I was having fun! I always had new ideas in my head, I imagined how to layout that text box, what effect to give them and so on!
So, here’s my first tip: have fun! Explore! Because no tutor can ever explain to you all the countless possibilities that this kind of world can offer. So you have to be like an explorer in unknown lands, you have to wade rivers, taste fruits never seen before.
Tackle this path with curiosity and desire to learn. I believe these are the first qualities you need to recognize in yourself even before starting. I know it may sound like the classic cliché, but in this context it is incredibly current and I’ll also explain why: nothing will be served to you on a silver platter and the information to be memorized will seem almost overwhelming at first. Also, know right away that all tutors from all schools around the world agree on one thing: the learning path will certainly not end with the course; the world of programming is constantly updated and you must be too.
So you have to be a person who is ready to support change, agile (and I’ll explain later why this simple word is very important in programming), with an open mindset.
At any level, the White Rabbit hole is far from completely uncovered.
PS: I promised to show you some work, so as to see firsthand what was possible. This was my first project, created after just 16 days, comprising HTML and CSS with Bootstrap for layout and formatting, and JavaScript for pop-up effects. It is also mobile-friendly if you want to view it on your mobile. I admit I’m quite proud of it!
