A lot of new developers, designers, writers, start their journey not exactly looking for a job, or to learn some set of skills, but to learn how to make a project, this can be frustrating because you dont know what to learn, which roadmap to take, and you feel anxious trying to learn the smaller necessary amound of knowledge just to get your project up and running, so, i will give you some tips, to encourage and guide you through this journey
The Roadmap
Basically, the set of skills, and the path in how to learn them, i think one of the best steps to take, is, a mentor, someone to find in some online communities to tell you what to learn, maybe how to learn, and which techs do better the job.
- Try to be concise in what you are looking for
If you want to tell that person in private about your project, do it, ask first if accepts to do so, and start detailing the project, this doesn't only gives some info to other person, but helps you summarize your project, and understand it better.
- Try to ask for the better tools to get the job done, and the concepts
At this point, that mentor should tell to first go a, then b and then c, in technologies, if you need to learn some concepts before heading to x tech, etc, for example, to make a todo app you will need to learn: html > css > maybe some css library > javascript > and maybe some javascript library
but it may imply to learn how dom works, some approaches in styling your apps, like design principles and some ux to make a better todo app for the user.
- Dont take an unique answer
Try asking atleast two persons, and if you can, ask why not take b technology over a, or c, this way you can not only get options, but also, spot trolls.
- Ask to google
Ask to google some concepts that you dont understand from the explanations of before, and some summary about the technologies mentioned before
- Make the roadmap
Write it down, you can also try to recognize how much time you gonna take learning x thing, or how much time you willing to spend, maybe try making checkpoints, or write a bitacora.
- Also, dont forget to take notes.
The Prototype
This is something that us as developers try to teach to a lot of people, and eve myself as designer has tried doing, first, make a prototype, try to abstract what do you need to make a viable example of what you want to do, and head on, start by separating parts of your project, this way you can handle smaller problems, and, try to send the not that necessary parts of your project to second phase, so you can focus on what is necessary
Understand when to ask for help, and when to take a break
You can try googling your problems to find if there is a better approach, for example, some questions in the area of development can be solved by looking at stack overflow or quora, in the area of design, there is pinterest try to look for inspiration and youtube to look for tutorials, and, there is even a stack exchange for writers, which can help you solve problems in your writings.
Take rests of 5 minutes after you has finished a long feature, this helps you clear your mind, and even think freely.
Learn to learn
Take some time to know how is your comprehension of different matters, how do you learn different things, maybe you prefer learning when someone explains to you, or by reading a book, try to find some paradigm, and stick to it, and not only that, take the best out of it!
Dont Hesitate
Some thinks take time, and that's ok, take the correct amount of knowledge from the sources you are studying, sometimes you may feel like you are learning too slow, or you dont need x things, but you may not know that, remember that that information can help you further in your road and you may want to know where to look if you forget something
Always take the basics before advancing
This point goes with the one before, try not to take things too difficult, and learn at your own pace, by taking your time to learn some things before the next step, and to take time to absorb the info, you can get onto the advanced later, but always, check the basics.
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