Jasonlearnspython on Janusworx

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #11 - Got a Django Certificate! Some Reflections

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:42:52 +0530

Been a few days since I wrote about Django.
Last week was a roller coaster personally, so I took things slow.
And then got back to a rhythm this week.

The daily work’s paid off and I managed to hit a milestone.
I got done with my Django course, today! :)
Hurrah!

Cert online.

Some Reflections (in no particular order)
#

I should keep better logs and notes about how I go about doing work. I kept deleting my sqlite database, trying to fix model errors, forgetting that I’d moved to Postgres.
This whole Django journey has built up on the last one. While I stood up a Django project the last time, I didn’t understand or grasp what I was doing.
This time around, I’ve understood the why and I’ve gotten a better mental model of how it all hangs together. What the request response cycle is. What needs to happen then. How it’s mostly all CRUD. How Django enables me to tie all these pieces together using models and views and forms and templates and a million and one little things to ease my life.
I’m now confident enough to go try standing up a Django project on my own and then muddle through, to build something I want.
I started the year, flailing about in the world of programming, because everything interested me. I’m thankful I took the time, to figure out what interested me and where I wanted to apply my focus to. Once I zeroed in on doing web development with Python, I’ve made much better progress learning.
While I understand that I need to write a lot more code, I want to finish building up a firm foundation first. To that end I want to learn Postgres, finish up CS50W, crash learn Data Structures & Algorithms (for my Indian interviews. Nearly every Indian company I’ve interviewed with, has made me do this and I’ve flunked miserably every time. I hope to miserably pass muster at least, going forward) and a wee bit of C. Also JavaScript. Lots to learn. I need to do this bit by bit daily, just like I did this part so far.
I understand what folks say, when they talk about programming. I understand their opinions better. Makes me realise that I’ve gotten the basics down pat enough.
To wit, Dr. Chuck was opining on destructors in classes in Javascript, and why there weren’t there in the early days and why they might be desirable now. And all the while, I was nodding my head in agreement, having understood every word, going uh-huh, uh-huh. Why? Yes! It’d be a darned good idea. I could do custom cleanup when my classes get torn down. (And this, from someone who has not written more than two pages of JavaScript yet 😂)
I kept waiting all this while, for it get easier, to reach some abstract level by means of some deep insight, hoping once I’d master that, I could then just fly along, spewing stuff, left right and centre, creating amazing works of code.
What I found instead, is a bunch of primitives that folk all over the world, take and put together in different ways, using various methods of combining them.
I realised that most of programming is just convention, based on a few truths. Which means that there is no grand unifying theory that ties all this in a neat bow. It’s just a lot of dedicated folk putting in the toil to create said works of code and polishing them to make it look beautiful. It’s mostly hard work. Not Genius.
Actual breakthroughs and genuine insights that change everything are few and far between.
And this makes me strangely happy. If it’s just hard work … well that I can do :) Why didn’t someone just point this out to me earlier? Knowledge work is just work? Putting in the hours and work and toil? Sure! Sign me up!
I figure, it’s turtles all the way down. The work consists of studying something complex, breaking it down, understanding it, practicing it, making it your own and creating a portfolio to show it off. Basically the same journey as a carpenter. Apprenticeship -> Journeyman -> Craftsman.
Finally, I’ve spent so much time telling folk, that becoming a good reader, took me years. And as usual I’ve been domain blind. I did not see, it’s the same thing with becoming a good programmer. Toil and patience.

I’m on a break for the whole of next week, and will be back after, to begin the rest of the journey, refreshed.
Here’s to upwards and onwards!

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #10 - A Very Long, and a Really Good Day

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 17:55:52 +0530

I did. I really did have a good work day!
I had one of those, whatchacallit, flow states.

What I learnt in Django land
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I learnt nothing!
Well I learnt nothing new. I spent the whole day and what little I time I had yesterday, trying to crack the assignment for module three of the course.
I struggled and struggled and then, struggled a bit more.
The more I write Django, the more intuitive it feels, like I can never make out, what’s provided by Python and what has been built for me by Django. It all feels like one seamless whole.
The blow up Django cycle continued today, to an extreme, it felt like. But it felt good and iterative, like I had a sandbox to play in, as I wished.
There’d be a decimal error and I’d fix it and then there’d be some sort of bounds error because I’d built too little capacity to hold stuff in my models and I’d go fix it and then I’d figure that this method returns a tuple, so I need to catch it in two variables and throw one away, just so I could have at the data I was interested in, and I learnt how to rebuild my models and migrations and reset my database and I spent two exasperating hours on a consistent Django blowup that just should not have been possible. And then I realised, I was assigning the same data to two models (same variable.) Long story short, I learned a lot.
Working over the past two days reminded me of this Julia Evans page, that I serendipitously came across a while ago.

![Julia Evans comic explaining the importance of tracking progress][jeiln]

Focus Follow Up aka Flow what?
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This probably, was the first time, I had a state of flow while programming (I used to have them all the time at work as well lots of times, when I am writing).
This probably means I am comfortable with the level I am at, and I should stretch a bit more.
Did eleven, 30 minute sessions with no aborts. I lost track of time, quite a bit.
Am done with three out of the four modules of this course, I’m on.
After yesterday, today’s progress really feels good.
While I’ll take my wins where I can find them, I should be cognizant of the fact that it was the uncomfortable practice of the week that brought me here.
And so, I want to get more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.

Here’s to finishing strong!

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #9 - A Very Long, and Not Very Good Day

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:09:18 +0530

Today is a short post.
I worked a lot.
Did not get much work or progress in.

Life got in the way.
Hope tomorrow is a better day.

I did do, 2 hours of work though, and I did learn a lot.
So there’s that.

Until tomorrow …

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #8 - Many, Many Relationships

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 16:42:17 +0530

Another day of doing only Django.
Not that I’m complaining. Finishing up this Django course is my priority.
Followed by PostgreSQL and Data Structures and Algorithms.
I just have to do them step by step, one after another.

What I learnt in Django land
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I like calling it Django land. Reminds me of Tarantino’s Django and Candyland.
I learnt all about many to many database relationships and how they’re done with models in Django.
They’re a logical extension of one to many relationships.
It’s like one of those who know who games. I know Carol. Carol knows Amelia. And so Carol is my through table, my join table, my junction table. I can request things of Amelia through Carol. That in a nutshell is what it is like.
I realise that all these complicated terms I feared are actually succinct names for simple, yet long winded processes or things.
I’m going to practice all this tomorrow morning.
Heuristic, whenever I see repeated strings vertically, I ought to be thinking databases for efficient storage.
Heuristic, whenever I see multiple things relating to multiple other things, I ought to be thinking many to many models/relationships (many books to a genre, many genres to a book, an author with multiple books, a book with multiple authors)
Use integers for primary keys. Integers are fast.
I now love the folk who designed and built Django. The more I learn about its innards, the more I realise there is no Django magic. Just back breaking hard work and lots of thought put into building this beautiful edifice over the years. Makes me appreciate learning Django, even more.

Focus Follow Up aka How did I do with focus today?
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Did seven, 30 minute sessions of Django and one aborted session
Had a lot of housework today and still managed to wrangle 3 and half hours of deep work.
Writing notes, seems to be helping. I get my quizzes right the first time around.
Deliberate practice and focus are not easy, that’s for sure. I keep looking at the clock. And then I keep moaning about how time passes too slowly when I am struggling with stuff.
Also noticed that whenever I start working on something tough, my mind gets really uncomfortable and wants to do everything else, but focus on the problem and do the work. I want to suddenly call people I haven’t spoken to in ages, check my mail, my messages, peek at the fediverse 😂 I resist. And tell myself, I just have to hold on for 20 more minutes 😂
I serendipitously came across this tweet, just a few minutes ago, which tells me I am not alone :)
- Writing code is often a constant struggle against distraction.
  — Joy of Clojure
This focus is now bleeding into other areas of my life. I am slowing down and doing other stuff, slowly, intentionally.
My mind feels like it is slowly expanding as if it was in a vise. It feels a bit more relaxed, a bit more freer

Here’s to showin’ up!

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #7 - Owning All the Rows

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 17:59:23 +0530

Let’s get on with today’s log!
I studied only Django today.
Was plagued with rains and power cuts and family stuff.
Managed to work well and patiently though.

What I learnt in Django land.
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Owned Rows, that opened my eyes into another dimension to begin with.
While I knew that Django supports multiple users, it struck home today, that I was the one to write all the code that supported all those users. All the exercises so far, were just build a view, show some data.
And now I realise, Oh! I cannot let Tom edit Jerry’s cheese details, nor can Spike get into Tom’s house. I need to be the one that guards against all that. Owned rows are one way I can do this. They will let logged in users edit or delete rows that belong to them only. Not the others.
I subclassed stuff, which let me drill OOP concepts like inheritance a bit more.
Finally, I learnt about DRY in action where I let the parent classes do all the heavy lifting, while I wrote a tiny class that let me tweak stuff just the way I liked it.
Finally, finally, I learnt the amount of work Django saves me and just how much power is there under the hood.

Focus Follow Up aka How did I fare today and how do I feel now at the end of the day?
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Did eight, 30 minute sessions of learning Django.
Had three aborted sessions, when I got ridiculously distracted.
If you want to know, why I abort and start over, I kinda go over this, in this post.
So worked about the same time (or less) as I did yesterday. I feel like I learnt a bit more, than I did yesterday.
I’ve begun writing scratch notes as I look at the videos. This makes it more slowgoing, but I internalise stuff a more. I think. I’ll see if this helps.
Energy wise, this is still sustainable. I feel good still at the end of the day. Not drained and exhausted.
Also I think I’m getting the grasp of this. I keep pausing the videos and then trying to predict stuff. I find myself being right, more and more frequently. Today was the first time I yelled at Dr. Chuck for typing in the model name wrong 😂
I only wish I had begun much, much, much earlier in life, when all these things were beginning and then grown with the Django project. I wish I was not as intimidated about programming being the domain of ‘smart’ people, when I was young. I wish I had more patience, as I traverse what seems like a never ending road of learning with no end in sight, with new things to learn, every half a mile. I wish I could get over this big mountain of basic fundamentals with a snap of my fingers. But I can’t. So I’ll do the next best thing. Show up. And do the work.

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #6 - Focus Followup

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 19:18:48 +0530

Today, I did not quite care how much progress I made.
Instead I focussed on getting my focus periods in, like I described yesterday.

It’s about an hour earlier than when I usually call it a day.
And yet, now that I am checking, I have ‘worked’ fewer actual hours than usual.
And I have gotten a bit of exercise and housework done too!
(This does not usually happen on a normal study day)

What I did
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Set a timer for 30 minutes.
Got to work. Butt in seat.
If I got distracted, I’d reset the timer to 30 minutes and start again. The aborted session would not count.
Tried to be patient with myself. Realised that doing things over, was not really a negative, if it meant that in the long run I’d be able to focus better.

How I fared
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I did six, 30 minute sessions of Django.
I did three, 30 minute sessions of Postgres.
Don’t think I could have lasted this long, if it was just Django.
Had to scratch and start over six times.
Ended up doing close to 4 and a half hours of focussed Deep Work.

What I learnt
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Learnt about tables in Postgres and did basic commands with a single table
Learnt about forms in Django and how they are built and all the niceties Django provides.
Worked through some exercises in Django, where I built forms and then hooked it up to models using Views.
Then learnt just how much time and effort Django saves me by using generic ClassViews.
Also got into a rhythm of doing stuff, blowing Django up, looking at the error, figuring it out and then going on the next blowup.

What I feel
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Did a whole day today, after yesterday’s run
Tired, but not exhausted.
Still feel energetic enough to write this blog post
Actually love this time, when I can sit peacefully and write. All I need now, to complete this setting is a glass of cheap Goan port.
I don’t feel rushed.
At four and a half hours, it might feel like I spent less time, but I got much more done than I do in a eight hour day. I realise that the tiny rest periods in between are doing me good. The first few breaks, I kept checking all my feeds. By afternoon, I had settled down to either doing small chores or just enjoying the solitude as I did gentle physical stretches

If I can do 30 minute stretches at will this week, I’ll increase them to 45 minutes next week.
Here’s to hoping, this is a sustainable way to focus and learn lots daily.

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #5 - Figured Out How to Focus

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 20:17:26 +0530

Hopefully, for the next couple of months at least.

As amazing as Dr. Chuck and Brian Yu and Reuven Lerner are, I find myself falling asleep as I learn web development.
I look at the videos, I seem to understand things, and then I zone out.
A while later, 30 minutes have passed, three videos are over and I am wondering, just what the heck Dr. Chuck is on about.

I find myself struggling like this over and over.
I have days of intense focus. But those are draining.
I then need a couple of days to recover, for every day, that I can study like that.
I realised that I need something sustainable.

So I decided to do a few things differently today onwards

I studied more than one thing.
While my focus remains learning Django, I realised that I cannot make that the entire day’s focus.
My mind can no longer process information like this.
While I want to focus on one thing and get it out of the way as soon as possible, to get on with the next thing, my mind refuses to cooperate.
So I studied Django for the most part, but also interspersed it with writing and exercising Python code (which I am sorely in need of) and learning some PostgreSQL.
I started interval focus training.
I realised that the phone is doing me no favours, but I do need to check it.
So I started working in 15 minute bursts since Friday.
15 minutes of no interruptions, followed by a minute or two of stretching my legs and responding to messages (no email, no social media.)
Today I did 30 minute sessions, which I’ll continue the whole of this week.
I hope to build up my focus muscle to where I can work in 90 minute stretches. And if I get in 3-4 such stretches on a daily basis, I’ll consider that a day well spent.

And as I write this at the end of the day, to my mind, I have made more progress, than I usually make in two days without being exhausted at the end of it all.
I’ve no idea how long this will work for me.
But I’ll report back on how this is going next week.
And probably write again, on when the well has dried up and I’ll need to change tactics.

Until next time …

Jasonlearnspython on Janusworx

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #11 - Got a Django Certificate! Some Reflections

Some Reflections (in no particular order) #

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #10 - A Very Long, and a Really Good Day

What I learnt in Django land #

Focus Follow Up aka Flow what? #

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #9 - A Very Long, and Not Very Good Day

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #8 - Many, Many Relationships

What I learnt in Django land #

Focus Follow Up aka How did I do with focus today? #

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #7 - Owning All the Rows

What I learnt in Django land. #

Focus Follow Up aka How did I fare today and how do I feel now at the end of the day? #

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #6 - Focus Followup

What I did #

How I fared #

What I learnt #

What I feel #

Learning Backend WebDev, Log #5 - Figured Out How to Focus

Some Reflections (in no particular order)
#

What I learnt in Django land
#

Focus Follow Up aka Flow what?
#

What I learnt in Django land
#

Focus Follow Up aka How did I do with focus today?
#

What I learnt in Django land.
#

Focus Follow Up aka How did I fare today and how do I feel now at the end of the day?
#

What I did
#

How I fared
#

What I learnt
#

What I feel
#