Front End Grit: A Developer Mindset

Table Of Contents

Foreword

Due to a Udacity bug noted in this pdf this is the second time this project is being submitted. The link for the first submission review/result is at the end of the pdf.

Introduction

This document is written for the first assignment/project of the Udacity Front-End Web Developer Nanodegree.

The document is written in markdown using the Atom editor with the preview page open (ctrl-shift-m) so that the real time rendering of the markdown is seen as one types. The markdown that makes up this text can also be viewed on GitHub by clicking here. Github pages also serves this content and can be view here.

References

I read the three documents suggested and am linking them here for future reference.

Letter To Future Self

In this section I answer the question posed in the project's instruction section.

Reflect on what your journey will be like as you develop your skills?
The coding journey will go through a honeymoon/hand-holding phase, then a confusion phase, then a despair and and finally mastery/awesome phase. This cycle will repeat periodically due to learning new tools and technology.
How I can overcome any challenge ahead in the Nanodegree?
When a challenge is encountered be persistent, work on it a bit everyday, develop my skills through practices and keep in mind the growth mindset discussed below.
When you are stuck. How will you solve your problem?
I will look for problem specific help on-line at Google, stack-overflow and the Udacity support groups/forums.
When you are stuck. What skills do you have now that will help you tackle challenges?
When stuck on a problem for hours don't just mindlessly continue struggling but walk away, take a break, do a different activity, refresh yourself and then come back to the problem. After the break your fresh eyes will help you approach the problem in a different light.
How will having a growth mindset help you reach your goal?
Having a growth mindset will help reach my goal by embracing failure as a learning experience and using it as a motivator for action instead of focusing on feelings of inadequacy, anxiety or a slow learning pace. Don't tally up success and setbacks but focus on the things you learned today and the things you will be learning tomorrow. Look as others that are farther along than yourself as inspiration to yourself by noting how their hard-work and persistence has rewarded them and you too can reap the same benefits. Focusing on the benefits will help make your learning enjoyable.

A graph that I find particularly interesting is shown below and is discussed in detail in the third article in the reference section above. It adds the resource density and scope of knowledge to the traditional confidence graph. Read the article for a detail explanation of the graph. It is interesting to note how your resource and scope of knowledge changes as you learn. Knowing this one can prepare for the challenges ahead.

Coding Is Hard Combined Chart

Goals

The following text list the technologies du jour that I am interested in learning during or after this Front-End Web Developer Nanodegree in order to achieve my goals and projects.

Front-End

Produce a website with one or more of the following technologies.

Back-End

Produce a back-end with one or more of the following technologies.

Mobile

Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills to develop mobile applications using one of the following tools.

Projects

After learning

My goal is to produce the following web and mobile applications:

I have other projects in mind but this seems enough for now.

Cheers, Carlton.