williamkennedy

Yes, I find Google a bit unreliable for documentation and I feel it's personalized search lets me down. I find DuckDuckgo to be much better for finding documentation and if I want to use google I can always use DDG bang operator !g

I set a goal in November 2013 to become a professional developer in 5 years. Became a developer in June 2015. The first few months were figuring out what to learn but once I learned what the market wanted in my local area, I went about learning that particular language and framework. In my case that was Ruby on Rails. Now I'm trying to become a more rounded Full Stack dev.

1 year: Able to make basic crud apps, use Jquery, css, 2 year: Much more comfortable with Rails, unix, CI and everything that goes with it 3 year: Comfortable using services such as Elasticsearch, learning new languages etc. 4 year - now: Currently learning Docker but make a list at the start of every year of the things I want to learn.

I make a list every year of what I want to learn and just do it.

Current list looks like this:

[x] Rails Performance by Nate B

[ ] Teach Yourself Computer Science

[x] Design for Hackers book

[x] ES6 by Wes Bos

[ ] learn docker https://diveintodocker.com/ref-gorails#enroll

[x] Javascript course 30 days (Wes Bos)

[x] Css grid course (Wes Bos)

[x] Css flex course (Wes Bos)

[ ] Scala - build list of resources first

[ ] Javascript the weird parts (udemy)

No problem. Great site.

Since you are specifically looking at services that can be provided by a small team or 1 person, I'm going to answer with services that I pay for that are managed by one person/small team than adding some things that I would like. Hopefully, this will help you get a subscription business idea you want to offer.

Personal training - I pay a monthly fee to my coach. I would certainly pay a monthly fee for other services such as cleaning, laundry, cooking if I could afford it.

Headspace app - Mindfulness course that costs between €6 and €10. I am just trying it out for a few days as I am curious about the field of mindfulness. I could see other types of courses delivered in the same way. I am not sure of the size of the team, but I imagine it is small.

City Bike scheme - I pay about €30 euro a year to use my local city bikes. It is a public bike sharing system. They have 1000s of bike that you can take between different bike stops.

Grammarly - Excellent app that corrects everything I write in my browser and my blog posts.

Lastpass - a service that has all my passwords.

GoCar Car Sharing service - Like Zipcar. It's why I have not bought a car.

GoRails - Tutorials on different aspect of Rails

Egghead - Not paying at the moment but will probably start again soon.

Sidekiq - A ruby gem I have used on many projects. Great business model. Run by one man (https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/sidekiq)

Some I don't pay for but consider valuable.

Distrokid - I am urging my friend, who is creating an album, to give this a shot (https://news.distrokid.com/what-ive-been-up-to-for-the-past-...). I would use this service if I were making an album. I have been thinking of writing a book, and something that would distribute my book across all the different digital channels would be perfect for indie authors.

Some other subscriptions that I would pay for include,

Supplements such as Creatine, Protein, etc. . . Based on my macros or sport

Coffee but that is done to death already.

If I had a child, I would pay a subscription for different educational toys each month geared towards a certain topic (such as reading)

I would not have been able to learn code without my girlfriend's support. I started teaching myself how to code in 2013 and got a job in June 2015. Although I mostly learned code in my spare time after work, my girlfriend offered massive support, encouragement and motivation. She didn't raise eyebrows when I spent money on books, online courses or spent my time practicing.

There was never any arguments about what I was trying to do (which at the time, I thought was impossible). She worked towards her career goals and I worked on mine.

It would be more macho to say I taught myself Software Development and did it all by myself but the truth is I would not have the job I have now without her.

I have a Chrome Plugin called News Feed Eradicator for Facebook. *

I find it is a terrific solution for preventing you from browsing Facebook. Now everytime, I got to Facebook out of habit, I end up leaving because my news feed does not exist and I don't get sucked in.

Works for me anyway.

* https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

I have actually written about this a lot as it is one of those topics that I am fascinated with. The trick is not to try and motivate yourself but to build systems and processes to get things done regardless.

For me, it boils down to 3 things. Pre-planning, habits and elimination. I have written about each separately on my blog http://www.new2code.com/2016/06/deep-work/

I plan a lot of stuff on my Google Calendar. My whole days are planned in advance including free time. When I am learning a new language, I set aside time for study. If a friend asks me to hang out, I can just check to see if I have prior commitments. I also have the regular gym slot and after 2+ years, I am simply routine when it comes to exercising.

Next, learn how to build habits and routines. This saves a ton brain power. There is a great video on habit building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8

Also, check out a book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit.

Finally, cut out the news and as much information as possible. Not watching the news added a ton of happiness to my life. This also cuts out distractions. Check out something called the Low Information Diet which goes into more detail as well as a book called Deep Work by Cal Newport

I also wrote a guest post on the blog Simple Programmer that goes into more detail on the willpower.motivation side of things https://simpleprogrammer.com/2016/09/07/limited-willpower/

I hope that helps. Largely I don't believe in long-term motivation, it is more to do with becoming routine.

Thank you for correction, it is indeed called "Deep Work".

This is similar to an argument made in Cal Newport's book Deep Focus. He also goes on to argue that since we are living in an attention-deficit economy in a time when it is needed most, learning to dig out these distractions is becoming more invaluable. Great book if anyone is interested in becoming more focused and less distracted like this article suggests.

Looks great. Here is a quick tip that I think could really help first-time visitors and of course your own blog. I think you could add an "about" page just to let people know what your site is about. I hope this feedback is useful as is my intention.

Since we are on the subject of personal blogs is http://www.new2code.com which aims to help people get their first job in tech. I expand on other themes in the future but right now I want to learn and share as much as I can about getting that first software development job.

Glad you did. Had a quick look. Found this post quite interesting http://datagenetics.com/blog/march12016/index.html

I love Scott Hanselman's blog. It's one of those blogs I check in with every so often. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/

I love the answers here. My system is pretty simple. I keep a list on Evernote every time I find a new resource to learn from. I only consider the resource (usually an online course/book) is going to help me be better at my job or help with a current hobby project. Then when I am bored at home later looking for something to do, I can refer back to this list and pick up from there. Usually, I find these resources when I am looking through Stackoverflow for answers. If I find I don't understand something or judge a Stackoverflow answer, I would find a Lynda.com course or something similar to add to the list.