A talk I did at Angelhack SF on May 4, 2013 (Updated).

1. How to Teach
Yourself to
Code.

2. Part 1:
Stop Waiting for the
Perfect Technical Co-
Founder and Start
Learning How to Code

3. Why learn how to code?

4. A lot of you just have
an idea

5. If you’re expecting to find someone
to build that idea for you, it’s
never going to happen

6. Demand for developers has
skyrocketed

7. Think about it…

8. Anyone with any programming
talent is getting offers from
Facebook, Google and dozens of
other startups right now

9. Why should a programmer choose
your idea over any other?

10. Do you want to
pay someone?

11. 1)You will pay too much

12. 1)You will pay too much
2)You’ll be unhappy with the process

13. 1)You will pay too much
2)You’ll be unhappy with the process
3)You’ll get something back you didn’t want

14. WHY?

15. WHY?Software is hard to estimate

16. WHY?Software is hard to estimate
“Should this really take 15 hours, or
am I getting ripped off?”

17. If you’re an entrepreneur waiting for
someone to execute your idea for you,
you’re not an entrepreneur

18. (sorry)
If you’re an entrepreneur waiting for
someone to execute your idea for you,
you’re not an entrepreneur

19. “Pre-Dodgeball I went through 3-4 years thinking I
was going to meet some magical engineer who
would build all the stuff I was thinking about. But I
never met that person, so I taught myself ASP and
MS Access out of a book and got to work just
hacking stuff together. I’m still a really shitty
programmer but I know enough to hack a prototype
together.”
- Dennis Crowley, Foursquare

20. Learning how to code
≠
How to be a software engineer

21. The point is for you to learn to
code well enough to
build a prototype

22. (aka Minimum Viable Product)
The point is for you to learn to
code well enough to
build a prototype

23. MVP = quick + dirty

24. “Product with the fewest
number of features needed to
achieve a specific objective.”
– The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development

25. Side note: build products that are
valuable despite being ugly

27. Eventually you’ll need to
find a lead developer

28. Knowing how to code helps you
find, pitch and manage good
developers

29. More and more, the things we
interact with in the world
around us qualifies as
“technology”

30. There are 10 kinds of people:

31. There are 10 kinds of people:
Those who understand binary
and those who don’t

32. Society is quickly dividing
into two groups:
1)
Those that know how to code –
they can manipulate the very structure
of the world around them.
If you’re interested in learning more, read Program or Be Programmed: http://amzn.to/yzd6hm
2)
Those that don’t – their lives are
being designed and directed by
those that do.

33. Part 2:
Choosing a
Programming
Language

34. I get it,
it’s scary to
jump in.

35. C, Java, C++, PHP, JavaScript, Python,
C#, Perl, SQL, Ruby, Shell, Visual
Basic, Assembly, Actionscript,
Objective C, Lisp, Where do you
start? Delphi, Pascal, Scheme,
Haskell, Tcl, Backbone, Fortran, Ada,
Lua, ColdFusion, Cobol, Erlang, D,
Scala, Smalltalk, Ocaml, Forth, Rexx,

36. Breaking down a web application

37. Web applications are applications
accessed over the internet

38. (which are different from
mobile applications)

39. Every web application has a
front-end and a back-end

40. The front-end is what you see
Front-end languages:
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
Web Pages

41. <h1>Welcome to Twitter.</h1>
<p>Find out what’s happening,
right now, with the people and
organizations you care about.</p>

42. <h1>Welcome to Twitter.</h1>
<p>Find out what’s happening,
right now, with the people and
organizations you care about.</p>
This is HTML

43. The back-end is what you don’t see
Database
Web Pages Rules
Programming languages:
PHP, Ruby, Python, Java
Database languages:
SQL

44. echo “Hello World”; print(‘Hello World’) puts “Hello World”
They’re all the same, just different
PHP Python Ruby
Hello World Hello World Hello World

45. And then there are
web application frameworks
Database
Web Pages Rules
Web application frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Django

46. “alleviate overhead associated with web
development by providing libraries for
database access, templating frameworks, and
session management. Blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah.”
Web application frameworks

47. “alleviate overhead associated with web
development by providing libraries for
database access, templating frameworks, and
session management. Blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah.”
Web application frameworks
build web apps
really quickly

48. If your goal is to build a
prototype, start with
Ruby on Rails
(aka ‘Rails’)

49. Ruby on Rails
is a web application framework
for Ruby

50. Rails is the easiest to dive into

51. Rails is the easiest to dive into
(tons of resources and a huge community)

52. Ruby (and therefore Rails) is easier to understand

53. exit unless "restaurant".include? "aura"

54. ['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize }

55. ['toast', 'cheese', 'wine'].each { |food| print food.capitalize }
(try saying it out loud)

56. Rails hides all the stuff you really
don’t need to know

57. Rails is just shortcuts like this
rails new application
create
create README.rdoc
create Rakefile
create config.ru
create .gitignore
create Gemfile
create app
create app/assets/images/rails.png
create app/assets/javascripts/application.js
create app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
create app/controllers/application_controller.rb
create app/helpers/application_helper.rb
create app/mailers
create app/models
create app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
create app/mailers/.gitkeep
create app/models/.gitkeep
create config
create config/routes.rb
create config/application.rb
create config/environment.rb
.
.
.
create vendor/plugins
create vendor/plugins/.gitkeep
run bundle install

58. So you can do stuff like this

59. There’s a temptation for
programmers to say
“Start with PHP or Java”

60. They say this because:
1. it mirrors the way we learn
things in school
2. it’s how they learned

61. IGNORE them

62. With those languages, you’ll
spend MONTHS learning the
basics so that you can do this:

63. (make a yellow square)

64. With Rails, fast and simple is
the name of the game

66. The ability to get quick and
positive feedback on your
projects is crucial

67. A final note:“Scaling” Rails

68. Does Rails scale?

69. Yes Some of the most heavily trafficked
sites in the world use Rails
Basecamp Twitter Shopify Yellow Pages
GitHubLivingSocial GrouponSoundcloud Zendesk
Hulu

70. Part 3:
How I Taught Myself to
Code in One Month

71. I find traditional learning
extremely tedious

72. So do you.(Otherwise you’d have learned how to code by now.)

73. So I developed my own method
I call “brute-force” learning

74. In college I would download podcasts of
classes I was taking (from other schools)

75. Then I’d listen to the podcasts
on the subway or walking
around the city.

76. Doing this ended up eliminating
hundreds of hours of studying
(also teachers loved my “unique perspectives”)

77. Why does this
work?

78. Have you ever been confused by something
when it's explained one way but when it’s
explained a different way it just clicks?

79. The result is that learning is
less tedious

80. More importantly, the stress
of feeling like you have to
learn something the first time
disappears

81. It’s OKAY to not understand
something the first time

82. It’s OKAY to not understand
something the first time
Isn’t that sort of the point?

83. The first time you learn something,
your mind creates a mental map. A
fuzzy picture of all the pieces and
how they fit together.

84. When you go back, you relearn
the specifics and it all starts to
make more sense

85. Just speed through as many
introductory tutorials as possible

86. Here’s what I recommend:

87. One Month Rails
by Mattan Griffel (Me!)

88. Ruby on Rails Tutorial
by Michael Hartl

89. When you finish, you’ll be able to
build your own basic web app

90. But there will be specific
features you don’t know how
to implement

91. Railscasts by Ryan Bates

92. At some point along the way, you
may feel a temptation to STOP and
learn Ruby (or HTML or CSS)

93. At some point along the way, you
may feel a temptation to STOP and
learn Ruby (or HTML or CSS)
Don’t.

94. Ruby Rails
Ruby is huge

95. Ruby Rails
Ruby is huge
And you only need to
know a tiny bit of it

96. Besides, you’ll learn all the
Ruby, HTML and CSS you need
to know along the way

97. After you’ve finished, check out
these fun resources that cover
basic Ruby:
• Codecademy’s Ruby Track
• Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
• RubyMonk
• RubyKoans
• Learn Ruby the Hard Way
• Ruby Warrior

98. Troubleshooting

99. 75% of coding is Googling*

100. 75% of coding is Googling*
*totally made up statistic

101. Stack Overflow

102. A lot of times you know what
feature you want to build, but you
don’t know what it’s called

103. For example: Cron jobs let you
schedule tasks in your app

104. Ask someone

105. Rails is very popular at
the moment and has a
LARGEcommunity for support

106. The best way to learn is to go to a
Rails meetup and ask someone who
knows more than you

107. in NYC
• NYC.rb
• NYC on Rails
• NewYork Ruby Meetup
• Ruby Nuby

108. Go attend some
hackathonsand find teams to work with

109. To hear about hackathons, sign up
for the following mailing lists:
• General Assembly
• This Week in NYC Innovation
• StartupDigest
• Startup Weekend

110. The ∞ list of Rails includes:
• Rails for Zombies
• Peepcode
• Agile Web
Development with
Rails
• Ruby on Rails Guides
• Hackety-hack
• Teamtreehouse
• Code School

111. Part 4: Coding in a nutshell

112. Installing Rails is
super easy

113. This is your command center
Command Line Text Editor
Browser

114. The text editor
is where you
write your code
Sublime Text

115. The command
line is where you
run your code
Terminal

116. The browser is
where you see
the result
Google Chrome

117. Rails uses a Model View Controller
(MVC) architecture
Controller
View
Model
Database

118. Database
Web Pages Rules
ControllerView Model
Rails uses a Model View Controller
(MVC) architecture

119. Github is where you save versions of your
project files

120. Heroku lets you deploy your app so that it’s
live in seconds

121. Part 5: Let’s begin

122. 1. Go to
RailsInstaller.org

123. 1. Go to
RailsInstaller.org
2. Download the
right installer

124. 1. Go to
RailsInstaller.org
2. Download the
right installer
3. Follow the
instructions

125. 1. Go to
RailsInstaller.org
2. Download the
right installer
3. Follow the
instructions
4. Yes do the Git
thing too

126. Some people get this error:
Error changing group of /opt/rix to rvm

127. Some people get this error:
Error changing group of /opt/rix to rvm
Who can solve this first?!

129. Let’s check if it worked

130. Find your command line

132. Find your command line
Open Programs > RailsInstaller > Command Prompt with Ruby and Rails

134. Type this command and hit enter
rails -v

135. Type this command and hit enter
rails -v
Rails 3.2.13
If it says something like
this, then it worked!

136. You’ve installed Rails, and you’re
ready to create your first app

137. Go to onemonthrails.com
to keep learning

138. Thank you :)
Mattan Griffel
mattan@onemonthrails.com
mattangriffel.com