Days 51-55: Code with Benny

What I've done so far:

• Completed all 100 days of Replit's 100 Days of Python course. Wrote about what I've learned in Day 30 "Thoughts"
• Harvard's CS50, weeks 0-7! (70% done)
• Started my own project: ShouldIReadTheNewsToday? A tool that automatically analyzes today's news headlines from major news providers around the world, and, uses an AI model to tell you if you should read the news based on your tolerance of bad news 🙃. Currently on pause to focus on marathon training and balance traveling!
• Daily log posts and several fun threads (follow me on twitter!)

This week, I'm on the move! I'm spending most of the week in 📍Lombok, and then heading back to Bali to meet a good friend from the UK who is running the Singapore Marathon event with me. We'll travel around Bali together for 10 days, and then head to Singapore to run the thing 😊

Day 51 (May 3rd, 2023)

What I covered/did

First half of Week 8 Lecture of Harvard's CS50!

• HTML Review (tags, serving code, document object model, and all the different tag types: table, image, video, links, meta tags)
• CSS Review (Semantic tags, moving style attributes around, style tags, type/class/ID/attribute selectors,
• Frameworks (bootstrap)

Resources I used

• Harvard's CS50

Thoughts

As I wrote in Day 50 thoughts, HTML/CSS was indeed a review for me, but despite that, I think it was nice to go through it again from a different teaching perspective, and to do so with more understanding of the underlying internet fundamentals (HTTP/DNS/IPs, etc). Particularly, enjoyed learning about frameworks (e.g. bootstrap).

I also learned a few new things around the different attribute options that you can include within tags - like "autoplay loop mute" for videos, as well as cool features when it comes to creating forms in HTML (e.g. prompting text in search boxes, redirects to google, etc). On top of that, I loved the way CS50 walked through incorporating stylistic elements in better and better ways - from including them in tags in the HTML, to breaking them out into classes ("class selectors"), to creating CSS files and pulling in style from those files.

Day 52

What I covered/did

The rest of Week 8 Lecture of CS50!

• Javascript (conditions/variables/loops/etc syntax, geolocating, events, etc)

Resources I used

• Harvard's CS50

Thoughts

Enjoyed the Javascript material. I did a little bit in high school (AP Comp Sci for the win!), but am enjoying doing this again with a bit more applicable and up-to-date context around the use of JS in conjunction with HTML/CSS. Getting closer and closer to filling out my full-stack development skillset 😊

On another note, I'm finding balancing travel and coding is getting a bit tough to juggle - this was a very good lesson for me. I want to experiment more with different lifestyles going forward - maybe do a month completely socially isolated and see how much I can get done (will the lack of social interaction be an inhibitor or a booster on my productivity?). I know that I get energized from some social interactions, so the extrovert in me finds it healthy to have a strong social life, but at the same time, I'm not the best at saying "No" enough, and end up overplanning/overscheduling my time, which gets in the way of focused work.

This is still an open question for me, and unfortunately not one I'll be able to address until after the marathon, given my travel itinerary for the next 2.5 weeks. That being said, I may try being more intentional about taking a day all to myself every few days within the 2.5 week time period.

Day 53

What I covered/did

Week 8 of CS50: Problem Sets, Labs, and Practice Problems

• Cemented some javascript syntax, and learned how to use document.querySelectorAll
• Dove a bit deeper into bootstrap documentation

Resources I used

• Harvard's CS50

Thoughts

Crashed my scooter today 😅. Thankfully walked away with only a few somewhat painful scratches and a broken phone, but was a bit shaken up for the rest of the evening. Eked out a bit of coding the morning before though, thankfully.

The lab problem seemed relatively easy, but helped cement some of the syntax of Javascript I picked up from the lecture. A cool learning was the use of querySelectorAll to create an array that contains all classes with a given id.

Day 54

What I covered/did

CS50's cybersecurity lecture (between Weeks 8 and 9).

• Encryption
• MFA
• Phone security & passwords

Resources I used

• Harvard's CS50

Thoughts

Enjoyed this a cool little detour by CS50 to explore from a slightly technical perspective common cybersecurity concepts. Particularly enjoyed learning about a new library and function (itertools/product).

The rest of it got a bit too basic, but I went ahead and copied in the notes to my learnings database and moved on!

Day 55

What I covered/did

Some of Week 9 of Harvard's CS50 (flask)!

• Render_template function
• Review of request.args
• Flask app organizational conventions (e.g. requirements.txt and folder setup)

Resources I used

• Harvard's CS50

Thoughts

This was a very hectic week for me: I traveled for 2 out of the 5 days, crashed my scooter and broke my phone, got locked out of my accounts when trying to set up my new phone, and missed my boat from Lombok back to Bali. Progress on my three primary long-term goals (coding, content, and marathon training) has taken a bit of a hit as a result. You may notice this in my pace of progression through CS50 - I only really went through three weeks of lecture in the last 10 days (as opposed to one week every 2.5 days or so).

Of course, I'm already going faster than prescribed for this course, but I also am not juggling some of the other responsibilities a student taking this course in a university setting would have to juggle. I'm juggling other things, but given the amount of optionality I have in the life I've been able to build for myself, I wish I had exercised more control over my time more and had the foresight to schedule in less travel. I'm even strongly considering traveling to another country for a month or so, isolating myself, and burying myself in focused work (I heard of another digital nomad, a friend of a friend, who does this every so often). This is an interesting idea to weigh; I'm a person who is, for the most part, an extrovert that is often energized by social interactions. Would the time savings of doing less social things be outweighed by a potential negative effect on my productivity given less social interaction?

It's easy for me to get caught up in the pressure I place on myself to stay consistent in the progress I make on my goals. The fact is that when I fall behind on the three goals I named above, I start feeling anxious that I'm not meeting the expectations I have set for myself. Yet I knew I had this mental pattern already - I even addressed it in my introduction to code with benny post ("closing thoughts" section). The takeaway back then, as it should be now as well, is that "shit happens", and that's okay. This is all a big experiment, and just because I fall behind doesn't mean all is lost.

I know the next 2 weeks will continue to be a rush. I will be squeezing in life things and goals (fixing my phone, part-time job, coding, content, training, maintaining relationships, etc) in between travel and adventuring. That means that the potential for me to fall behind on my long-term goals will remain high. Perhaps it's even more important to remind myself that this is my project, and all that matters is that I'm being an active participant in my future - the inputs are all that matter. I know I'm doing my best (why would I do otherwise?). A philosophical discussion for another day: what's the point of living a life at half effort?

But an important thing to mention, and something I forget perhaps all too often, is that gratitude is an antidote to dissatisfaction/worry, and that I have an insane number of things to be thankful for. I'm literally living my dream life, and if my primary complaint is that I'm traveling too much, then that means my perception of my life is not aligned to the reality of where I'm at. Of course, it's okay to rebalance and reflect on what I want out of life in a given time period, and that's what I'm doing, but I am writing this to remind myself to do so while keeping gratitude at the forefront of these reflections.

Speaking of gratitude, some pictures from adventures this week below. Very thankful for everyone reading this too - I've been getting lovely messages and replies to my emails that are incredibly motivating. Thank you all 🙂

That's all for this week - thanks for reading. 45 days to go 😊