Four years ago, I made a decision to actually put forth real effort into learning how to code. I bought a giant C++ book and brand new pens. I completely rearranged my room, strategically placing my three computer monitors for studying instead of gaming. Those days were over. I was a coder now.

For the next six months, I spent between three and six hours each night going through my C++ study plan. I really thought I was doing well. Any topic I didn’t understand, I just went over it again and again. I thought my patience and determination would…

I was 35 years old when I first started learning code. I knew I’d either waste a lot of time or I’d eventually come out the other side. I made the decision to stick with coding no matter what. I had the drive, dedication, and patience. I knew it’d be a monumental task, but I held true to the belief that as long as I didn’t give up, I’d succeed.

Throughout my journey, I’ve consistently made monumental mistakes that led to seemingly impossible roadblocks. For the first few months, I couldn’t even wrap my head around what I was learning…

This is invaluable information for newcomers and seasoned pros alike. Thank you for taking the time to include so many useful resources.

I love how this is structured in a way to really organize your thoughts throughout this process because there is a lot. And because there is so much it is common for people to feel overwhelmed, demoralized and eventually broken when approaching such a grand project.

Your article gives us hope and determination through your own experiences that there is actually light at the end of the tunnel as long as we keep pushing through.

I’ve seen a lot of articles popping up about the monetary success that some writers on Medium have experienced. These stories point out key factors that can lead to thousands of viewers and, ultimately, thousands of dollars.

When I first started writing for Medium, I didn’t even know that making money was an option. I was already writing a ton for Quora which I enjoyed quite a bit and I was looking for a place to post longer articles about things I love doing. I also saw it as a deeper learning phase for these things as well. …

Going beyond Hello World to show important Python fundamentals

Python is built with the ability to organize your program so it’s easy to navigate and read. You don’t want all of your code in one file. You also don’t want all of your functions scattered aimlessly. By using classes we can set up methods so the functions you need are only available through the named objects we set up from a class.

Think of a class as a description and set of instructions for how a tool is going to work. The object we create from that class becomes our…

In 2011 I finally admitted to myself and my loved ones that I was an alcoholic. Shortly after, I lost my IT job of ten years, separated from my wife and son and started couch hoping from friend to friend from Kansas all the way down to Texas. I was arrested in Texas and eventually came back to Missouri where I lived in a van behind a McDonald’s. I was drinking at least a fifth of vodka every day and far from being done with my insane bender.

I found a few more bridges I had yet to burn and…

After three years of self-taught programming, I finally decided to put myself out there and look for a junior Python position. I started with job recruiters. Even though I could pass assessment tests and do well in interviews, they all said I would be difficult to place because of my lack of professional experience.

At the time, I was running a Python Discord bot on an online gaming Discord server. One of our new members asked about the bot, and after a brief conversation, they said they worked as a Python developer. They mentioned that their company was hiring and…

When VR first became available commercially, I was one of the first people I know to purchase an Oculus Rift rig. I demoed it at Best Buy and shelled out $1500.00 for everything I needed. When Mark Zuckerburg demoed an Oculus Rift he spent $4 Billion so I feel like I got the better deal.

I was so impressed with it that I compared the feeling to finding out Vampires were real. Yesterday VR was only available in Science Fiction novels. Now. Vampires!!!

I played with my new VR rig a lot. I explored everything that was possible with it…