Wow, that struck a chord. Pretty much every sentence rings true, especially the peer encouragement one. For me it's the availability of easier entertainment - why write that python bookmark creation date histogram plotter, when I'm tired and can just waste the evening reading Reddit? Oh, and there's the procrastination habit I've been nursing for over a decade.
On the other hand, having someone as a sounding board to bounce ideas off, and additionally to guard me from going off tangents and getting distracted - that helps make some progress.
Have you scouted around for a local hackerspace (http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces)? I did, but I'm using the language barrier (expat) and some leftover social anxiety as excuses to not pursue that road.
All else aside, would you be interested in starting a sort of a study group - just a place one can post their ideas and have others provide brainstorming, feedback and motivation?
I think that may work - I remember my most productive streaks were when a friend had an issue to solve and I would swoop in on the opportunity to help. When faced with a similar issue of my own, I would endlessly procrastinate and often fail. If others have also experienced similar situations, creating such a space to facilitate pair programming could increase everyone's productivity.
There's also hack nights in meetup.com and other sites where you basically announce your project/problem/ or just a snippet you need to write and find a pair.
Check out resources like scala-user, which is designated newbie-friendly, railsbridge.org and codereview.stackexchange.com.
Would you guys be interested in setting up a "study group", sort of a Procrastinators Anonymous for wanna-be developers?
I can't begin to count the books I've skimmed over and not completed a single exercise. LPTHW was really nice in the way it gave you nothing else to do but exercises. Perhaps something as simple as a small, tight-knit forum (plenty of free forum providers) & IRC channel (something like freenode #python-studygrp) can be useful to bust the barrier of "I'll just start on that exercise/project/book when I'm a bit less tired." Somebody shoots an idea of something they've been meaning to do and others can jump in with brainstorming, ideas, pair programming and general "let's just do it" attitude.
Hell, I know I've been meaning to write a python script to draw a daily histogram of the creation times of Opera bookmarks, but I never got around to it. If I had a twin, I'd prod myself to hunker down and just write those <1KLoC.
So if anyone's interested in the group thing, just drop me a line so I can set it up tonight (CEST timezone here).
If you guys figure something out for a study group or IRC chat, email me! I would love to have some people going through LPTHW with me to keep each other at it. Like a lot of people, I always find myself starting the learning process with enthusiasm, but then dropping the hat when other projects come up. Really need the support to help make programming a priority.
Wow, that struck a chord. Pretty much every sentence rings true, especially the peer encouragement one. For me it's the availability of easier entertainment - why write that python bookmark creation date histogram plotter, when I'm tired and can just waste the evening reading Reddit? Oh, and there's the procrastination habit I've been nursing for over a decade.
On the other hand, having someone as a sounding board to bounce ideas off, and additionally to guard me from going off tangents and getting distracted - that helps make some progress.
Have you scouted around for a local hackerspace (http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces)? I did, but I'm using the language barrier (expat) and some leftover social anxiety as excuses to not pursue that road.
All else aside, would you be interested in starting a sort of a study group - just a place one can post their ideas and have others provide brainstorming, feedback and motivation?
I think that may work - I remember my most productive streaks were when a friend had an issue to solve and I would swoop in on the opportunity to help. When faced with a similar issue of my own, I would endlessly procrastinate and often fail. If others have also experienced similar situations, creating such a space to facilitate pair programming could increase everyone's productivity.