One of my favorite resources to point front-end people to is Wes Bos’s JavaScript30 course on YouTube. In particular two of the videos which he calls “Array Cardio.” While most of the videos are little projects you can make in about 30 minutes, those two days have less of a result and are mostly about using all the array methods and just printing all the results into the console.
It’s a really enjoyable process: focusing on the fundamentals of the language you’re working in. And this morning I found myself needing something similar. I have a couple heavier projects on my mind and getting my mind ready to work on them was proving difficult. It wasn’t a procrastination problem, just a clarity problem.
For some reason the “cardio” idea came to mind, which reminded me of another little project I have on the backburner: working through Learn Python the Hard Way. That course is almost entirely code cardio, very intentionally. To use Zed’s words:
It’s only the “hard” way because it uses a technique called instruction. Instruction is where I tell you to do a sequence of controlled exercises designed to build a skill through repetition.
To start my coding session off, instead of getting right into the PHP I’d be doing the rest of the morning: I actually did a lot of typing in Python using the next exercise from LPTHW. Like a light jog before a workout, it was exactly the trick I needed.
Alex Gustafson 