Week 4 and all is well.

Week 4 of the Makers Academy pre-course has really been a continuation of week 3. Ruby, ruby, ruby, ruby. And a good thing too, as there's so much to learn.

I'm mildly dyslexic. My father and eldest daughter struggle a lot with it. I've learnt a lot of tricks to help over the years, and spell check is a good friend of mine, but for me it mainly manifests in reading. I'm quite slow at it, but can usually cope OK. However this week I have really struggled to read The Well-Grounded Rubyist in pdf form and, in a separate browser window, do the exercises or challenges included. I need a physical copy for both speed and ease of use. I ordered one a week ago, unfortunately there has been a delay in delivery and it won't arrive until this coming Monday (estimated), meaning I've only got through 3 chapters in four days. I'm a little upset with this as I feel it's been hugely beneficial, and although I will carry on over the weekend, I wish I'd started sooner and done more. It's a great enlightening book, and I recommend it to anyone thinking about learning Ruby or becoming a developer.

I had some good advice this week - don't be my own bottleneck, which I know I can be. We have a lot of resources available to us where we can get/find help. I don't know, maybe it's pride or something, but I'd shied away from using them. However, once I took the plunge and asked for help it felt good. There are no stupid questions, and everyone who knows the answer has been stuck on something simple at some time in the past, so I need to understand this more and ask for help sooner rather than spending too long stubbornly trying to solve an issue myself. Essentially, I gotta get over my own pride - and not be my own bottleneck.

I'm starting to grasp certain areas of Ruby a lot more than I did, there's still a heck of a lot to come to terms with but no-ones gonna become fully competent in 2 weeks are they? That's almost as ridiculous as signing up to become a web developer in 12 weeks!

I'm know I'm not the only one who's equally excited and terrified about the main course beginning in just a few days. The Makers Academy Slack channels have been brilliant in sharing this experience with the other members of the cohort, and realising that I'm not in this alone.

So, roll on Monday, when the fun starts for real...