TIL:

Today I had a really great conversation with one of the developers at work. He basically got his start exactly like I did, so I picked his brain on how to proceed, and get better. He confirmed that I’ve been making a rookie mistake. I’ve been overwhelmed by how many things there are to learn, and haven’t gone into enough depth on any one thing. I need to run in one direction for awhile, instead of skipping around, learning the basics of a million different things.

Not to say I won’t explore, but to really focus on one thing. Since a lot of my work is in Wordpress, and I have a lot of support in it (as far as the knowledge/ skill sets of the people around me), I’m running the PHP direction. Originally I was turned off of PHP by the community. A few months ago I was going between different things to learn, and went to a PHP conference. It wasn’t even funny how unwelcoming it was. 95% of the attendees were dudes who weren’t interested in talking to me. And the other 5% who were female weren’t any warmer. I then went to a Rails Girls DC conference, and the vibe was completely different.

That being said, I’m taking to heart the advice that I just need to really commit and go deep on one thing. And again, right now PHP makes the most sense. (And with my recent success, I’ve got good feels for it, and good momentum.) Just having a direction is a good feeling.