Hey everyone and welcome to Developer Tea. My name is Jonathan Cottrell and today I'm answering a question from Matt Johnson. Matt is a listener of Developer Tea. He's been listening for quite a while and he actually asked me a series of questions, all of which I think are going to be very interesting to you. But I wanted to share a little personal story with you. I actually just got back from a long endeavor into the country of Ireland. My wife and I took a vacation to Ireland. It was an incredible trip. We loved it. I'll probably end up posting a series of photos over the next couple of weeks on my Twitter account. You can follow that and see my completely unrelated to development pictures of our romping through Ireland. At. Developer Tea or at Jay Cottrell, depending on the day. Some days I will tweet more on one or the other. Just kind of depends on my mood for that day. I do tweet regularly from Developer Tea episodes that I have done in the past, as well as the newest episode for the day. So follow Developer Tea on Twitter to stay up to date. And that is also a place where you can ask me questions. Now, Matt actually asked me a question by emailing me. At Developer Tea at Gmail. And that is how he asked such a long and detailed question. Matt is in an interesting situation. So I'm going to go ahead and read Matt's question. Hi, Jonathan. I came across Developer Tea while looking for web development podcasts and have greatly enjoyed many of the episodes. Your constant encouragement to contact you finally got the best of me. The reason I'm writing you is to hopefully get a bit of advice from someone knowledgeable in the development field. I'm at a point. In my life where I am looking to learn web development for a future career and wanted to get your advice on if you think my plans and goals are realistic or not. Let me give you a little background. My current situation is that I have a long term health issue that makes me unable to work a traditional nine to five job and an office. I had to quit my previous job, which I was trained for and got my degree in because of this. Now I am in the position of trying to find a new career that can be done remotely from home. I have. I've always been interested in web design and development, but I have never pursued it further than passing interest because of lack of time. Now that my situation has changed, I've been looking at it seriously as a possible future career and have become excited about the idea of learning web development. Well, Matt, you're in the right place. A lot of people listening to this podcast are in the process of learning how to be a web developer. With that history in mind, my questions for you are as follows. Matt had four questions for me today. First. First of all, is it realistic to be able to learn the skills needed to be a web developer through an online school or online boot camp? The short answer is no. And that kind of comes as a surprise to to a lot of people, probably because I have online schools and online boot camps that sponsor this show. And I'm a big believer in them. But the truth of the matter is that the skills that you need to be a web developer come by you practicing web development. Certainly an online school or online boot camp is a great place for you to begin learning those skills. But is it enough for you to get all of the skills you need? No. Is it something that I recommend? Absolutely. There are many different ways to to go about instruction, whether it's self-instruction or pseudo guided instruction. Like if you were to go to an online boot camp that is automated in some way or has some kind of accessible information that you can watch. Maybe it's just recorded screencasts and you're watching somebody else teach you the screencasts. Or if you actually have a personal connection with your teacher. Of course, the personal connection with the teacher allows you to ask specific questions. As we'll talk a little bit about the sponsor for today, OneMonth.com. They actually allow you to ask questions of the teachers. They have kind of a mixed version of an online online school. So is it realistic to be able to learn the skills needed to be a web developer through an online school? Or online boot camp? No. But it is realistic to expect to begin learning and to expect to have enough skills and enough knowledge to begin practicing the trade of being a web developer. So the next question that Matt asked is, is it realistic to be able to work entirely remotely as a web developer? Probably focused more on front end. The simple answer is yes, it is realistic. In fact, there are many companies who hire developers that work only remotely. Even very large companies like GitHub. They have large numbers of employees that are only remote. And in fact, there are some companies where all of their employees are remote. And especially this is true for web developers. So you are looking at the right field. If you want to get into remote work, working from home. There are a lot of people who talk more about this. I actually do. I do not work remote. So I am not the expert on remote work. However, there are some really good resources and some companies that actually are proponents of this idea. They share experiences. GitHub is a big proponent of the idea. You can go and Google plenty of things related to GitHub's remote workers and what they do to make remote work work for them. Now you should take my advice on this and really my advice on anything with a grain of salt. Not every company. Provides the opportunity for people to work remotely. But especially in your case. Especially because you have the disadvantage of not being able to be on site necessarily. A lot of companies would consider a remote position. Especially in this field. So keep that in mind. That not every company has remote positions available. Do not expect it. But there are a lot of companies who work. So. Sometimes even solely with remote workers. Sometimes they have found that the remote workers actually support their working style better. Or support their culture. The company culture better than on site workers. Before I read the next two questions from Matt and answer them. I am going to do a quick word from our sponsor OneMonth.com. And then we will be right back to answer Matt's questions. What if you could learn to build internet? Anything in one month? Well with OneMonth.com you can. Just ask any one of the 20,000 students who have learned to code on OneMonth.com. By building real websites and applications. Complete with payment systems. 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Front slash developer T. Thanks so much to OneMonth.com. For sponsoring today's episode. And Matt. I think OneMonth would be a great place for you to start. But let's continue with the questions. That you sent in the email. Number three. How would you recommend. Going about learning the skills. I need to be ready. To work as a web developer. And in what order. Is there any online school or boot camp you recommend. Or is there a better way. You would recommend. This is probably the most popular question. That I get. Through developer T at Gmail. And on Twitter. This question is very simple. It's how do I learn how to be a web developer. And this is something I'm really interested in. In fact I'm interested enough in it. That I'm doing some research. Through some reading. And also doing some primary research. And asking people. Trying to find out. How we learn how to be web developers. I found some things. That I think are going to be helpful. I'm reading a book right now. That is all about the science of learning. Now I haven't finished the book. But it's called Make It Stick. It's a great book so far. Comes highly recommended. And all of the book is backed by significant amounts of research. Which they cite in the book. So. It seems to be a very good resource. On understanding how we learn. And one thing that they mention in there. That is counterintuitive. To what you might expect. To be the case. Is that you should learn things. Interleaved with each other. In other words. Don't learn JavaScript. And then CSS. And then HTML. Learn JavaScript, HTML and CSS. All at the same time. And this is counterintuitive. Because even on this show. I've mentioned the importance of focus. Focusing on one thing at a time. In order to get things done. But in fact. When we are learning. Sometimes it is better to take the harder route. In other words. It's better to learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript. And how they interact with each other. Because it forces us. To recall different things. In different ways. In other words. You can't learn by repetition. And expect. Your recall. Agency in your brain. To be able to work as well. In the future. So if you learn HTML all at once. And then you start learning CSS. Your recall ability for HTML. Is going to drastically decrease. As soon as you stop. The repetition process. And the reason for that is. A lot of science that I don't totally understand. But I know that this is true. That you should learn the things that you want to learn. Interleaved with multiple subjects. Preferably. Things that are related to each other. In some way. And the basic reason for that is because. All of our learning processes. Are a attempt. To store information in our brain. For later recall. And use. In other words. We're trying to remember things. In order to use them. In the future. In order to know them in the future. For example. Just learning a language. Or learning. Even a programming language. We want to remember the syntax. Of that language. So that when we need it in the future. We can recall that information. From our brains. And repetition is not the best way. To do this. According to the research. By the authors of Make It Stick. Instead it's better to test yourself. And to do interleaved learning. In other words. Learn multiple things at once. So that answers the ordering question. Learn things that are similar to each other. And learn them. In parallel. To each other. Learn them at the same time. Read about HTML. And then read about CSS. And then perform. Tests on your ability. To recall the information. That you've just learned. Perform tests on your ability. To recall HTML information. As well as CSS information. Together. Because in reality. That's actually how you're going to be working anyway. You're going to be writing HTML and CSS. In parallel to each other. So it makes sense for your brain. To learn them. At the same time as well. Of course the sponsor of the show. Is One Month. I would recommend them. As an online learning resource. There are quite a few others. That are very good. That are just a Google search away. There are a lot of free resources online. As well if you are not able to invest. In what One Month offers. Now I will say this. One Month style of learning. Is also practical. They have you go through the process. Of actually creating something. Which tests your recall abilities. To be able to build something. As you're going along. If you decide to do self-guided study. If you decide to do free resources. Make sure you follow the same concepts. To continue working and practicing. As you go along. Don't simply inundate your brain. With information. And expect it to stick. You should be constantly testing your brain. By executing the things that you are learning. And putting yourself in a position. Where you are actually. Practicing what you are learning. And this leads me to your fourth question. Which is the following. Any other suggestions or advice. You could give someone wanting to learn. And just starting out. Am I way off base. And totally being unrealistic. No. You are not being unrealistic. This is something that humans do. This is a feat. That you can accomplish. If you give yourself. The proper space to fail. And if you give yourself the proper space. To learn. The truth is. Learning happens when we fail. Failure is such a strong motivation. For us to learn. But also. We have an improper perception. Of the way our brains work. We think that if we fail once. We are biased to think that we are going to fail again. We think that things stay the same. Given the same inputs. Because we think our brains are. Kind of inherently. Whatever they are. Whenever we are born. But the truth is. Every experience we have. Changes our brain. New neural pathways are created. Or they are strengthened. Or they are destroyed. There are all these different things that are happening. That I definitely don't understand everything about. But the truth of the matter. Is that your brain changes. And as you fail. You are learning. So that is the advice that I would give you. Is when you fail. Don't be discouraged in that failure. Realize that that failure. Is information that you use later. And it's only pushing you further to learn. Am I saying that you should always fail. And if you continuously fail. That you are on the right track. Not necessarily. I do think that eventually. As you see failure occurring over and over. That perhaps it's time to seek out a mentor. Or maybe you need to move in a different direction. For a while. But as you continue down the road. If you are experiencing failure. And confusion. Remember it's a positive thing. Rather than a negative thing. We think that failure is negative. Because we aren't accomplishing. What we are trying to accomplish. But the reality is. That we are learning along the way. Which is actually your goal. You are asking how do you learn. And the truth of the matter. Is that learning is full of failure. So what comes first. Well as I said in a previous episode. Start with something small and fun. Start with something that is very limited in scope. And that is interesting to you. That is fun for you to think about. And fun for you to create something. And that is something that you are interested in. And just do that thing. Just build that thing. As completely as possible. Start by trying to build. And when you run into problems. Try to solve those problems first. And then seek out external information. To help you solve them. Rather than starting with instruction. Start by trying to build something. And then you can move forward. In a way that you are discovering. You are discovering solutions. Rather than starting with solutions. That is the best way to learn. Matt. Thank you so much for sending in your questions. There are people who are listening to this show right now. Who are encouraged by your decision. To make a shift in your life. Especially when you are at a disadvantage. With a health issue. There are other people who are probably listening to the show. Who have health issues. Who have been given a hope. By you taking a step out. And actually trying to do something about your situation. You have taken one of the most important steps. And that is. To get the nerve to ask questions. To get the nerve to ask other people questions. Is such an important part. Of the learning process. Because it opens you up. To learning. To actually realizing what you don't know. And then learning that thing. So that you can move forward. Now I am not saying that I have all the answers. But I am saying. That you learn when you ask questions. Thank you so much for your questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. At developer T dot com. At developer T dot com. Comments and questions are definitely welcome on developertea.com. If this show has helped you in some way, consider giving back to the show by going to the iTunes page for the show, which is in the show notes and leaving a quick review. That is a huge help in helping other developers just like you find Developer Tea. Thanks so much for listening to Developer Tea. And until next time, enjoy your tea.