React in a Week
If you cut me open, you’d find blood, bone, sinew — everything except ‘passion’.
So I’m building a talent stack. Per Scott Adams:
The idea of a talent stack is that you can combine ordinary skills until you have enough of the right kind to be extraordinary. You don’t have to be the best in the world at any one thing. All you need to succeed is to be good at a number of skills that fit well together.
The first building block is software.
My goal: Be at SWE-intern level (frontend) by summer 2021.
Why that goal? If I can get a competitive internship, it’s fair to say my software skills are in the 75th percentile. That’s enough to qualify software as a bona fide skill in my stack.
Week 0 Experiment Outline: I considered several paths. I’ve settled on learning React. I’ll pick up what I need of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS while learning React.
I know basic Python.
Why this experiment? I expect this to be a crucible — and I don’t know what I don’t know — so I can’t commit fully. I need to experiment. I expect I’ll learn what it takes to do this, and adjust my analysis of each approach (below).
How will I know if the experiment is a success or a failure? I won’t. But I can guess at heuristics to help me decide:
Was it engaging? Did I enjoy it? Did it push me?
Progress through modules of the React course: Quantifiable and measurable. Shows me what I know and what I don’t.
Progress on the projects that are part of the course: How’s my progress? Have I even begun? Am I stuck or continuing fluidly?
Below you’ll find the options I considered, and reasoning about each.
