For the brand new - who are looking at "boot camps"

I started in 2010, and there weren't any boot camps. When there were - they were in San Francisco and in person, (and I wasn't in SF) so - I learned from hundreds of different places. It was fun - but I also wasted a lot of time digging around... and really - things were in some ways just harder back then. I could have saved YEARS with the right tips and some community.

Luckily for beginners: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (The three primary languages that make up website) are better than ever and there are a lot fewer 'gotchas' and edge-cases.

However - in all those 10+ years... there have probably been hundreds of thousands of posts and tutorials created and ... yikes! It's super hard to sift through all that noise.

I want to be a "coder"

Boot camps have changed too! As COVID hit, many of the schools bought each other out and "streamlined" and - well, it's really hard to even know what is what anymore. Those student reviews may not even match up with how the school is run these days. We don't exactly have "in-person" camps anymore.

Not only is "finding the right code" and "the right language" confusing... but - just understanding the landscape and the different roles is confusing. "I want to be a coder," they say. But there's so much more to it.

Where to start

There are a ton of "developer roadmaps" that are absolutely terrifying - even for me...

I'm not even going to link to them - because they aren't created to help you. They are made to explain how "horrible and hard JavaScript is" by people who want a medal of honor. But - that's another story.

So, - we put together all the blog posts and videos we'd been writing to answer these questions over the years.

This page is for people brand new to the field who want a relaxing set of steps to discover the various roles and figure out what is right for them: https://intrototech.net

Get a lay of the land

And we've been building a little crash-course [here](https://intrototech.net](https://intrototech.net) too.

It's not a heavy - "QUICK watch me code!" type crash-course. It's an exploration of the "Why" and "What" and "How" - of programming and designing things for The Web. It is accessible for people of any skill level - and it's really just to get a lay of the land and help you make decisions about how to spend your time. Be for you try and learn 'what' to learn... it's nice to know the options!

Mindset

You can do it!!! You just need to start off with the right mindset. Programming doesn't need to feel so "hard."

Turorial purgatory

Learn how to use tutorials properly.

Save time by NOT working

Speaking of TIME - that's one of the biggest concerns. People are excited - and they want to learn FAST! But that can blur the view. How do you know you're looking at the right resources and taking breaks and using the time wisely? It's not always the 'speed' that helps those concepts stick! Here's a video about managing your time as a beginner.

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When you're ready... and - assuming you want to learn web development: you've got a bunch of choices.

Do you want to spend more of your TIME and avoid spending money? (learn on your own?)

The best books to learn web development and design

(Cleary just my opinion but I've read hundreds) Here are the books and how to use them:

Get a few buddies to learn with.

It's fun!

Real-life UX and web-design work is a lot more like this:

If you want to spend MONEY and avoid spending so much time (go to a school)

Here's how to vet and choose a coding/design schools

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Yeah. So, I'm making a video about how to build a really great portfolio - and I'll drop it here when I'm done. I think that'll round off a set of resources. Let me know if you have any questions - and I'll answer them! : )

These ideas and videos came out of thousands of StackOverflow questions, and Quora questions, and people talking in the various Discords - and so - these are real answers to real questions that newbies are asking every day. We're not trying to monetize a youtube channel or anything like that. It's just overflowing from our regular job. We hope you find it helpful.