Low Cost/Free Learning and Tools for Up and Coming Web Developers

#webdev #learning #html #css

Money. It's something we all wish we had more of lying around. However, if you're not born into a wealthy family or you, oh I don't know, get incredibly lucky and hit the lottery, chances are you're living paycheck to paycheck. Whether it be more cash in your wallet or more money in the bank, we could all use a little extra moola hanging around. I know for a fact as single free resource available to me and then some.

So how does this relate to Web Development? When I very first made the decision to pursue Web Development it was back in August 2017. I was working a dead end retail job at a certain 3 lettered pharmacy chain, and was super unhappy with not only the job but the pay. So I applied for a scholarship to take the Intro to Programming nanodegree at Udacity, and somewhat surprisingly to me, got accepted. But let's be honest, if I didn't get that scholarship I would have never been able to do it. If it weren't for accessible resources, I would still be wandering around in retail purgatory.

There are 3 main ways that developers learn to code. Some people go to college and major in Information Systems or Computer Science. If it weren't for my admittedly awful aptitude for math beyond College Algebra, maybe I would have majored in Computer Science while in college. There's also bootcamps, like Flatiron and Lambda but even with ISAs (Income Share Agreements) you don't pay anything while you're going through the bootcamp, but you end up paying for tuition 1 1/2 times over afterwards. The cheapest option (and the one I chose) is self-teaching. The barrier to enrollment in college and bootcamps can be too high for low-income individuals. In comparison, self-teaching can be accomplished with few resources and little to no money. There's books, YouTube videos, udemy courses, local communities, and more. Below I'll go over some of my favorite resources I've found useful in my own programming journey.

The best books I've found helpful for Web Development
HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites by Jon Duckett ($13.79)
Javascript & JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development by Jon Duckett ($22.99)
The Road to React: Your journey to master plain yet pragmatic React.js by Robin Wieruch ($27.65)
Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming by Eric Matthes ($17.00)

Some of the YouTube videos I've found helpful