First, Thanks. ¶
I started this site around a year ago as an outlet to both collect and share my thoughts on technology and the ensuing pop culture. Because it is an anniversary of sorts, I wanted to share some of the statistics available to me:
- As of today, there are 251 unique subscribers via RSS
- In this week alone (the week isn’t even over yet), 335 different humans decided to engage with my site, for a total of
- 1298 page views
I share this not to brag, but to illustrate just how easy it is to cultivate a following. The things I write aren’t particularly novel, but there is only one Anthony Craig out there. And apparently, his voice is at least moderately interesting for over 300 people on the internet. I would have been happy if just 20 people found value in my thoughts. So this is pretty amazing.
This site was a big checkmark off of my bucket list. I remember listening to the Accidental Tech Podcast in late 2013 and hearing advertisements for Squarespace. I can hear Marco’s read now: “Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for designing your website.” I thought for a long while before taking the plunge. Know this, though: Marco’s ad read for Squarespace was not off the mark. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. That is, until I decided I wanted to do hacky things. To conquer those things, I learned a bit of HTML and JavaScript in order to implement Bigfoot footnotes.
So, yay.
Next ¶
Another bucket list item I have is hosting my own podcast. In these times of the second/third podcast renaissance, podcasting is easier than ever. Squarespace practically does it for you. At some point I will to do that.
But before I venture into podcasting, I need to have something to contribute. I’m sure my podcast will revolve around Apple and technology and how that relates to popular culture (just like this site). But I want more from my podcast. Part of my podcast dream involves talking with the people in the Apple development community, whom I have been listening to for the better part of 18 months. I want to be able to have intelligible conversations with those Apple nerds concerning their craft. I’m not talking Debug-level, as awesome as that would be. No, I’m thinking somewhere around an ATP-level of nerd dome seems like my thing. But I can’t do that without actually knowing something about programming languages like Objective-C.
Ever since getting really into Apple around ten years ago, I have always wanted to be a “computer programmer.” Not so much because coding was cool in and of itself, but because I wanted to be in the know. Years ago, I felt so cool using killall Dock to fix stupid badge icons not updating correctly in the Dock. I wanted to be a guy who understood why that command did what it did. And I wanted to know why computers can be made to do the things they can, just with a bunch of typed out syntax.
So how could I go about learning a programming language?
Experts Say ¶
It seems there is no silver bullet to learning a programming language. Everyone learns things differently. However, Casey Liss and the rest of the ATP guys have some thoughts on this topic.
Their take on the best way to learn a language?
Try to Solve a Problem ¶
Instead of aimlessly writing code for the sake or writing code, why not write code for a purpose? For example, create a website. Or make an application?
I made the website already, so it was an app for me.
For the longest time, I struggled with this. I didn’t have any problems I thought could be solved with an application. Then it hit me. There is this one task I struggle with at least a couple times a week. I have an idea for app that could help me with this occasional struggle. Would not having this app make my life terrible? No, of course not. But would having this app make my life easier? Yes. And that’s all it takes. It would solve a definite and real problem for me, and a lot of people like me, I hope.
All that’s left is to make it.
The End ¶
So forcing myself to sit down and write an app will accomplish my goal of learning a language, but in a backwards sort of way. That’s okay. Sometimes I wonder if I am destined to do everything the hard way. Learning Objective-C and/or Swift certainly wouldn’t garner upon myself that venerable moniker of “programmer” I mentioned earlier, but it will go a long way.
Stay tuned for updates on my app, and, eventually, podcast.
All in good time 🐺