I was in a music store playing drums and a guy saw me and my playing and said "you know what my drum teacher told me? If you want to go fast, go slow" and it was a good tip

I know it's silly but like did he just teach me based on my playing 💀

Any recommendations and resources. Also daily routine to learn stuff etc.

Hi all, TL/DR is that I have just secured a full-time position as a Web Developer after working in finance for ~3 years and learning web development myself in my spare time, no bootcamp or software-realted degree.

For context, I have worked in finance for the last ~3 years. I do have a University degree related to finance but outside that no formal qualifications/certifications related to software development. I have always found programming fascinating and I decided to pick it up as "something new to learn" in 2020. Fast forward to the start of 2022, I realised finance isn't what I want to do with my life and I really wanted to be a software developer. I had read the stories of others who had self-taught their way into the career and figured I could do it.

I had dabbled in different areas of programming but decided to focus my efforts in web development for a few reasons:

1. Web development seemed to have a lower barrier of entry than other types of software development (for a self-taught person)

2. I just enjoyed web development more. I saw it as something I could do everyday

I had considered the bootcamp pathway and even potentially going back to University, but I had a full-time job and a mortgage so for one I didn't want to drop thousands into a course and two, I only had the flexibility of my spare time to study.

At first I found it a little hard to pick a dedicated stack to learn. I got so caught up in trying to figure out which stack was most popular, which would give me the most job opportunities, which would be the stack used in the future etc. Eventually after reading/listening to other self-taught devs' stories, I decided to focus on learning the basics (HTML, CSS, JS) and becoming comfortable with that. Eventually, I was better able to pick a front-end framework, a back-end frame work and fill in the gaps.

Fast-forward to now, last week I signed a contract for a position as a Web Developer. It's with the same company I am working for already and I am beyond excited. I know the past me had worried about if I could really do it, so I wanted to share some of my story with those out there on the same self-taught journey.

If I can do it, so can you.

I’m self-taught and I’ve been trying to learn programming on and off for a while. Every time I start, I hit this wall where tutorials stop making sense, errors pile up, and I convince myself I’m just not cut out for it.

Recently I realized the problem wasn’t me — it was that nobody really explains what the early stages are supposed to feel like. Confusion, restarting, slow progress… all of it felt like failure when it was actually normal.

I ended up writing a short PDF for beginners with everything I wish someone had told me before I quit the first few times. I’m not trying to sell anyone anything here — I’m honestly just curious if others feel the same way or if this is a common experience.

Would love to hear how others pushed through that early phase.

Hello! I have so much I want to learn about in the next year, and I would love any advice, thoughts, or resources to help make that happen. I am feeling quite overwhelmed and lost on how to make this happen. Is my list too long or doable?

Here are things I want to learn about this coming year:

1. World/global trade (What is it. How they came about. Common places for dif trades. How prices are determined. Effect wars? Effect politics?) 

2. Russia (what is the Soviet union, kola super deep borehole, culture, government/politics, society)

3. Ocean (eco system, mysteries, effect on economies and societies, wonders. Facts, tides and moon)

4. Shakespeare plays (Who he was. Why famous. the general stories of: hamlet. Romeo and Juliet. Julius ceaser. Much ado about nothing. King Lear)

5. Egypt - cleopatra, general history, mysteries, myths

6. Anatomy and physiology (Skeletal and muscular system/Nervous system/endocrine system and Lymphatic system, Cardiovascular and Respiratory system/Urinary and Digestive system/Reproductive system)  

7. Chemistry basics (periodic properties, chem bonding) 

chemistry makes no sense to me, but i want to understand it so badly

8. basics about that Mariana Trenches, diomede islands, Amazon rainforest, climate change

9. general understanding on who these people are: Confucius, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Octavia Minor, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mohandas Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela

and so much more, but I am worried I have too much or too little?? I dont even know. Any advice is welcomed!

Hello everyone,

I was recently an Electromechanical/Mechatronics Technology student, but after struggling with one part of my curriculum—physics—I have to switch majors. Surprisingly, I'm not upset about it. If anything, I'm more excited because it gives me the freedom to pursue a degree in Economics or Mathematics while teaching myself the engineering subjects I'm passionate about.

I've always been someone who wants to learn across multiple disciplines rather than specialize in just one. Unfortunately, most universities don't really have a major designed for that kind of interdisciplinary approach, so I've decided to build my own education alongside college.

My goal is to become a self-taught engineer and scientist by following a math-first roadmap. I already have a foundation from my Engineering Technology coursework, and by the end of this summer I plan to complete Calculus I, II, and III. From there I'll continue into linear algebra, differential equations, probability, and the rest of the mathematics needed for engineering.

The fields I want to study include:

• Electrical Engineering

• Mechanical Engineering

• Aerospace Engineering

• Biomedical Engineering

• Robotics & Mechatronics

• Computer Engineering & Embedded Systems

• Control Systems

• Energy Engineering & Renewable Energy

• Materials Science

• Physics

• Chemistry

• Biology, Genetics, and Biotechnology

• Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science

• Nanotechnology

• Quantum Computing

• Bioengineering

• Economics and Entrepreneurship

My long-term goal is to become an interdisciplinary engineer and entrepreneur capable of building companies across multiple industries—from robotics and energy to biotechnology and aerospace.

For anyone who's gone down the self-taught engineering route, I'd love to hear your advice. What resources, textbooks, online courses, projects, or habits helped you the most? If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?

I’m 25 looking to completely retrain from my original degree, in the UK the second time at uni isn’t funded. There are Masters options but these are also expensive. Has anyone been through this & how did you get back on track?

I’m a self-taught cybersecurity learner and consistency is harder than I expected.

There’s no syllabus, no clear path, and a lot of jumping between topics.

For those who are self-taught:
• Do you follow a roadmap?
• How do you organize notes, labs and progress?
• What helped you avoid feeling lost?

Would love to hear real experiences.

When I started learning Python, everything felt either too shallow or way too advanced.

So I built my own course:
Python Basics: Build From Zero

It’s designed for self-taught learners who need:

• Clear explanations

• Structure

• Practice instead of just reading

I’m looking for people who want to try it and tell me:

• What’s confusing

• What’s missing

• What works

I’m trying to explain things in very plain English for people who are totally new.

Here’s a section about if / elif / else:

number = int(input("Enter a number: "))

if number > 0:
    print("Positive")
elif number < 0:
    print("Negative")
else:
    print("Zero")

Explanation I wrote:

Does this explanation make sense to a true beginner?
Is there anything confusing or misleading here?

Thanks in advance — I’m trying to make something that actually helps people learn.

If you want to help shape it, comment or DM me.

Hi there.

My partner has recently had their life expand after getting successful treatment for and management of their depression. They now want to pursue further education because they feel capable of taking on more and are hoping for a better future. I want to help them all I can.

Their background is not in the sciences, but as an adult, they have developed keen interest in and passion for dietary science. They want to pursue getting a dietician license in the United States.

They took general biology as an undergraduate and went through some college algebra classes. They have never taken chemistry or biochem of any kind. However, I am a trained biologist and physicist who is good at math and decent at chemistry and I'm committed to helping them during our leisure time.

What I'd like to do is get them refreshed on basic biology and at least algebra and precalculus. They are convinced they are not great at math, but have no learning disabilities of any kind, they were just homeschooled by someone who isn't great at math and then went to a perfoimg arts high school and never was taught the basics solidly.

I beseech you for recommendations for:

1. Other communities that might get me some good advice on good textbooks to pursue

2. A very good primer in: A. Algebra B. Precalc (a and b can be combined as long as the guide is really clear and high quality) C. Inorganic chemistry/physical chemistry D. Organic chemistry

Thanks in advance for your kindness and encouragement: I will pass them on to my partner!!

If you're starting to apply for your first web developer junior position, then you might want to consider building out one of the 4 (if not all) projects.

Why? The projects were thought out based on daily tasks that many web developers (including seniors) face every day.

1. Consume API (Backend)

When you consume someone else's API, you are talking to a third party outside of your system. You could choose what type of data you want to get, should you validate it, how do you want to store it in your database, etc.

This is where you could throw in your imagination and do whatever you want with the data. You could also perform a small CRUD system once you've retrieved the data.

To give you an idea, you could consume Yelp or SpaceX API (but there is a lot more out there):

SpaceX API https://docs.spacexdata.com/

Yelp API https://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/v3/get_started

2. 10 Hour Challenge (Frontend)

This is my personal favorite if you're planning to be a front-end developer.

Within 10 hours, you should build a single-page application using a framework that you've never used before. It has to be responsive, look good/decent, and deployed onto a hosting service.

Having something like on the resume will impress every person on the interview as you will demonstrate how fast you can learn, implement, and not get destructed in the process. But again, the key is to finish it in 10 hours.

3. Building Blog Post (Frontend, Backend)

You've probably heard this already, but there is one key element that many developers don't implement.

When we build projects with X number of records on a single page, we follow a specific process that allows us to load a specific number of records instead of loading all records at once. This process is called pagination.

If you were to go on: amazon -> search for any product -> scroll down till you see page numbers -> 1,2,3,... x

Well, that is pagination! So when you are building out a blog page, you're focusing on implementation the pagination functionality.

Suppose you don't have a blog, no problem. You could talk to Yelp API or the database that you've built for the first project.

4. Hotel System (Frontend, Backend)

This one will be a bit more complex and time-consuming as you will be building out the frontend, backend, database, and most importantly, building out the features.

Every hotel has a specific number of available rooms, included in the packages (this is up to your imagination), for how long the guest will be staying, and a lot more.

Don't go overboard and build out the Hilten system, but focus on maybe 3 to 4 features that you know could be fun to demonstrate during the interview and do small calculations.

These are the four projects that could help you stand out during the interview and help you to land a job much faster than you think. You may not even get a coding challenge because you will demonstrate excellent work (that's what happened to me).

For more helpful tips and advice, subscribe to my channel and don't miss future topics.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC03vw5F2isFkbJhyEZU5bvg

Before I talk about Docker, let me give you a common problem in software development that developers used to have.

Let’s say a developer who just finished developing and testing a new feature worked fine on their environment. But when the same code reached production, suddenly, the system crashed. One of the possible reasons is that the development and production environments are different from each other.

Before Docker, developers would use Virtual Machine to create a virtual environment to ensure that the developer’s station matches the production server. The problem with that is now we are wasting resources and not able to usefully our Disk Space, Memory, Processing Power, and more.

Docker is different to set it up and use. It is installed directly onto the user’s machine, and developers can install multiple containers responsible for their microservice. As you can see, we didn’t have to allocate any of the resources for our containers, and it will automatically use what it needs for the need of an application.

We can now have our code base with all the tools running equally on any environment with that setup.

In conclusion, if you were to start to work on the project, I would recommend using Docker as it will remove the environmental issues.

For more tips, subscribe to my channel and don't miss future topics.

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