Black Cat Blog

Thoughts, Stories, and Ideas

Revisiting Software Development

I guess you could say that I am trying to figure out how I learn best and I think I learn best from a book, rather than from websites and these online courses. So I am re-thinking trying web development yet again. I don’t quite know whether I am stubborn, persistent, or just plain both. Since I am fairly sure I learn best from printed material, I am thinking about buying two books on full stack web development and seeing how they can work for me.

I really want to learn how to develop web applications because I believe it is something that I can do. Yet, I have not found a way to learn that meets my learning style and perhaps I don’t really know my learning style very well. Learning Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD came partially from books, googling, and experimentation. I don’t think I can quite take the same approach with something like software and web development. I need something a little more structured but not discovery based. I need something that is applied and preferably takes a student through a project of building a web application. I have yet to find something of this nature.

In the past, I have had quite a good experience with books from No Starch Press. This publisher takes great pains to ensure that the writing is good and technically accurate. So, I think I am going to order The Complete Developer by Martin Krause. It is basically a full stack web development book. The cost of the book is even very reasonable at only $38.79 from Amazon. It is worth it to see if I can learn get a good foundation on web development from this book and then branch out on my own to learn other aspects. Maybe taking the same approach towards learning to program that I did when learning operating systems will work this time.

The more thinking that I do about the reasons for my lack of success in software development really might be more tied to the approaches that I have taken rather than a lack of aptitude or ability. And this is cheering me up because I went rather hard on myself for it being a lack of aptitude. If I could somehow manage to learn something by taking this route, I’d feel pretty good. I know I have had success from this publisher several times over so just maybe, I will again meet with some further achievement.