Late last year, I’ve decided to put “Learn A New Language” in my goals for 2014. I thought I had all the confidence to do it– to take another step towards improving my programming skills tremendously, and learn another language. My officemates know Rails (Ruby) and I can easily ask them whenever they’re free. One of them even gave me a nice Rails ebook to start with.
The Dive
I made the plunge because of a new website we’re developing at work. I was lucky enough to be assigned to a complicated project wherein I can touch on a new tech. I was with a senior Rubyist whom I really find awesome when it comes to creating and handling huge web applications. I was doing easy tasks, of course I just learned Rails stuff what can you expect from a poor noob like me immediately?
I did read up on the basics of Rails. There were so many books recommended on Reddit and basically everywhere. I installed Ruby, set up RVM, installed Rails and bundle installed the shit out of it. Next thing you know, I am following a basic app tutorial.
Ruby codes are beautiful. One does not simply describe codes as “beautiful” unless they really are. They are very readable and neat because everything is an object. Literally, everything in Ruby is an object. Even “nothing” is an object! (nil is an instance of NilClass). Another sweet thing about developing in RoR is the RVM. It is a command line tool for Ruby which makes it easier to switch Ruby versions easily and create gemsets as you wish.
The Failure
However, despite the many good things about Rails and the plethora of resources available to learn it, I still ran into roadblocks, like a normal human being would. The basic CRUD tutorials were fairly easy to follow but the minute I wanted to do something that’s not a normal CRUD task, I hid myself and cried in the corner.
TL;DR: I thought I was doing fine. Swag’s up, Jira stories down. Until it hit me…
The Struggle Is Real, Yo!
The struggle is real (or Rails?). The transition isn’t seamless. There’s a lot to learn.
I suck.
I will continue to suck until I learn this the hard way. But I will not stop.
As Kobe said, misery = motivation.
Misery = Motivation #thanku #urwelcome
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) March 7, 2014