LVEC Blog

dedicated to the self-educated

LVEC Blog

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Coding 101

What does it mean to “think like a programmer”?
September 21, 2019

Lot of people ask what it means to "think like a programmer" means. Here are some traits of people who think programmatically!

Inspiration

5 Ways to Avoid Disappointment While Learning to Code
June 29, 2019

If you're disappointed in your coding progress, it's usually based in unrealistic expectations. Here's how to avoid putting yourself in that position!

Personal Stories

Shoot Your Shot, 2019 Edition
May 13, 2019

First time posting on my home blog since 2017! Glorious day! Let's talk about conference talk and accelerator cohort applications.

What I'm Working On

Having a Productive Creative Day
July 22, 2017

Creative days are the days where I just dump things from my brain, without editing. Here's what I do to relax, focus, and let the creative juices flow.

Inspiration

10 Perks of Being a Newbie Web Developer
July 9, 2017

This time may not seem enjoyable, but that’s because learning to code is hard. Add these items to your gratitude list. Have you ever fondly remembered a relationship after the

What I'm Working On

On Being an Overextended Newbie Tech Entrepreneur
June 22, 2017

Parsing the challenges of producing useful social content as a newbie web developer, and my efforts to overcome them I’ve been going through a tough time lately. I’ve been feeling very

Inspiration

Keep writing and recording, newbie coders
May 2, 2017

We need your perspectives, now and forever This is going to be a “short” one. For those unfamiliar with my writing, a 4–5 minute read is definitely short. 😂 I like

Resources

Leveraging Twitter to build your web development career
May 2, 2017

Why Twitter followers can be your biggest fans, and how to build a powerful audience Ihad been on Twitter for nearly two years before I finally figured out how to use it. I

Inspiration

4 Reasons You Can’t Learn to Code That Have Nothing to Do With Being Lazy or a Poor Programmer
April 11, 2017

Personal responsibility is important, but there may be more to it. It’s a familiar picture. You’ve decided to learn to code. Eager and enthusiastic, you pick your first tutorials and learn-to-code

Resources

Why You Should Be Learning With Treehouse
April 5, 2017

Insights from one of Treehouse’s top 1% of students internationally Why I recommend Treehouse, specifically When I talk about when I first learned to code, I often start after I

Resources

Visualization Techniques for Programmers (and Why You Should Be Using Them)
April 3, 2017

Learning to code doesn’t just happen at the keyboard Lately, I’ve been experimenting with different learning styles and brain hacks. While I have adapted naturally over time to self-educating in the

Coding 101 Front-End What I'm Working On

WIWO: JavaScript and the DOM
January 11, 2017

In WIWO (What I’m Working On), I discuss what languages and technologies I am currently learning using Treehouse, so you can follow along with another student learning web development. We won’t take

Coding 101 Resources

6 Tips For Getting Out Of A Coding Rut
November 24, 2016

When teaching ourselves web development, it can be difficult at times to keep the momentum going. Life arises, things happen, and falling off the horse doesn’t seem like a big

Coding 101

Growth Stages of the Web Developer
November 4, 2016

The four ladder rungs every web development student climbs I’m primarily focusing on LVEC right now, and focusing on creating content for other self-taught web developers. However, when I find some

Coding 101 Resources

Note-Taking for Self-Taught Students
October 16, 2016

How to take exceptional notes while teaching yourself As self-taught students, we are becoming attuned to our learning strengths in a way that traditionally-taught students may never have tapped into. When

Educational Technology

Ego Has No Place in Education
October 13, 2016

I started teaching myself web development nearly a year and a half ago (WOW!), and I’ve been stuck on a plateau for a while now. I had a lot of

Personal Stories

The Path from MUD to OOP
August 9, 2016

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my origins — mainly because I take a lot of it for granted, despite so much of my experience contributing to the person I am

Coding 101

Read Other People’s Code
March 3, 2016

On the importance of reading others' code, and how it can make you a better programmer.

Personal Stories

Reflections On 2015: My First Year of Coding
January 8, 2016

Happy New Year, LVEC readers and fans! I apologize for the lull in posts, but it’s certainly been for a good reason: I will be returning to my homeland, Massachusetts,

Front-End Inspiration

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Front End
November 18, 2015

I’ve been looking for my first web development position for roughly the past 3 months, and it’s starting to take an emotional toll on me. I’ll be the first to

Coding 101

Programming Principles: Stuff You Need To Learn ASAP
October 26, 2015

It’s been taking me way too long to come up with new content lately, because I’ve been focusing much more on being accurate in my writing than I should. And

Coding 101 Front-End

Code Speed Dating: Meet CSS
September 18, 2015

Welcome to Code Speed Dating, where we’ll take a basic 5-minute-read approach to introducing different coding languages. After all, we’re busy people, and don’t have time unless we like what

What I'm Working On

Why I’m Scaling Back On Learning To Code (And Ramping Up On Learning Problem Solving)
September 18, 2015

Wow, it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted! I can’t believe time is flying by so quickly. I have a point to this post (albeit convoluted, as usual), and

Inspiration Personal Stories

I Will Not Compare Myself To Other Developers
August 20, 2015

Today, let’s do a little exercise. It won’t hurt… I promise. In fact, it might feel really good. Cathartic, even. Repeat after me: I will not compare myself to other developers.

Coding 101 Front-End

Code Speed Dating: Meet JavaScript
July 28, 2015

A brief introduction to a lovely programming language Back into some technical posts! I’ll be doing this little section occasionally called Code Speed Dating, where we’ll take a 5-minute-read approach to

Inspiration Personal Stories What I'm Working On

Baby’s First Hackathon
July 27, 2015

That time I participated in a hackathon 3 months after starting to code Let’s make one thing clear, my dear blog family. I am new to all of this web development

Coding 101 Front-End

Web Development Basics: Front-End vs. Back-End
July 13, 2015

Okay, I’ve started out on a pretty generalized foot about why web development is in need of more women, but maybe it’s still unclear what web development actually is. Being a

Inspiration Personal Stories

Conversations with Black Women in Web Development — Part I
July 13, 2015

Black women’s perspectives on the demanding world of web dev One of the most rewarding parts of my newfound career in web development comes from the relationships I didn’t even know

Inspiration Personal Stories

Where I Began
July 13, 2015

Long before the end of my customer service career, there was a girl who loved technology One of the most frequent questions I receive is “how did you get started?”.