The Beginnings

I used to make stone tools and now I make web tools. 

People frequently ask me how I chose to make a shift from being an archaeologist and urban planner to a web developer (well, an aspiring one at the moment of writing). I have thus decided to start a blog, in which I could document my journey to becoming a developer. I could have started writing much earlier, as I already have been learning how to code for a while but oh well. Better late than never, correct? 

Back to the beginnings: what is the connection between stone tools and web tools? I first started writing Python code here and there back in my archaeology days in order to automate processing data and creating GIS maps. Later on, in my urban planning days, I became interested in agent-based modeling and learned NetLogo language. Since then, I've been working at the intersection of social sciences and programming, doing social data analysis and simultaneously developing NetLogo tools for data processing and visualization. Today, it is time to close the gap and get a full immersion in tool-making. Web making.

I am currently a student of The Odin Project, a great place that provides a structured and well-defined path to becoming a web developer with an emphasis on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. The curriculum is free and open-source, and students are welcome to contribute to the project. With freedom comes responsibility - you have to be dedicated, hard-working and diligent in order to succeed in a self-paced learning environment. I can't complain about the lack of these qualities.

The Odin Project is not the only resource I use for obtaining knowledge and experience. MOOCs are such a great place to learn, and I just can't emphasize enough the importance of education accessible to all. I have already completed the first part of CS169: Engineering Software as a Service through edX, and am currently working on the second part of the course. I plan on continuing taking computer science and software engineering courses through edX, Coursera, Udemy, and others. What I love about software is the perpetual learning.

So stay tuned. I will be posting about my progress here. Hopefully, in several months I will have one, or two, or more RoR apps under my belt.