• Context: doing course on Angular. After learning components, data-bindings and directives, I realized I needed to test and push my new skills in a project, aside from deliberate reps.

  ---

• Took about 7-8 hours total, in one day.

  ---

• Pomodoro discipline gave way to riding a 'wave' of just pushing it hard to completion

  ---

• Most time lost on: 1) the error of trying to do 'one-off' from the 'not-yet-learned' area, i.e. advanced Angular forms, and also bootstrap dropdowns; 2) the error of skipping abstraction-level-css consideration, so that all css flows from one pattern

• Prevent slowdowns:3

---

• As simple as possible:5

---

• Prioritize:3

---

• Track progress & adapt:4

What went well:

• Quick development.

  ---

• Did complete.

  ---

• Deliberate mental reps, active recall - works. Could make the project because of all the active recalls I did on sub-skills.

  ---

• E.g. component, each form of data-binding, directive, passing data, etc.

  ---

• Prevented quicksands of perfectionism, mindset of looking for no-nonsense, ok-enough alternatives to get the job done more efficiently.

What went poorly:

• Spent 3+ hours on trying to do the forms in some advanced way.

  ---

• Struggled with bootstrap 'one-offs' - e.g. dropdown, or some other item, getting it to work.

  ---

• Css became kinda messy, lots of inline styling

Root causes:

• Not yet well-trained in doing css in a framework-manner

  ---

• Strategic error point in my 'how-to-learn-in-general': trying to do 'one-off' well from a 'not-yet-learned' area.

Next time:

• SOP: a) Rely on feel for it and begin with features, components, models plan.

  ---

• b) Consider a few common sense contingencies, what if I see x starting to go wrong, get stuck etc., what will I do then, c) Plan css abstractions. Get every repeating sub-area to flow from a thematic abstraction, e.g. all menu buttons are custom like so and so, all title areas are so and so

  ---

• d) Make placeholders for all comps - every comp needs to be there

  ---

• e) Now, code it systematicaly, going from the top, and always starting from the Typescript model.

How can I do it all better:

• How to learn in general: regularly rehearse not repeating the error: trying to do a one-off well, from a 'not-yet-learned' area - that's a huge error because it's not going to be done well anyway because you haven't learned it yet, so you trying to guesswork it well.

• Remember to go by feel. It's not just technical process. If you don't feel like it's a good push, accurate stretch of your abilities - not too far, not too little - if it doesn't excite your nervous system - if you you're not riding the 'energetic wave', if it doesn't feel efficient, you know some stuff is wrong and you need to re-think your entire approach, first. This comes BEFORE anything technical or any results, this is a core, key aspect of valuing process before results.

• All SVG graphics are done with path attribute and are React components. Adjusted by custom hook, for responsiveness.

  ---

• Development process was non-existent.

  ---

• Very high randomness of effort.

  ---

• Took 20-30x longer than it needed to.

• Prevent slowdowns:1

---

• As simple as possible:1

---

• Prioritize:2

---

• Track progress & adapt:1

What went well:

• Appearance is high quality and unique

What went poorly:

• Took 10x longer than needed.

  ---

• Repetetive, circular, inefficient development actions

Root causes:

• Inexperienced

  ---

• Untrained at managing development process

  ---

• Tolerated poor development rate

Next time:

• Mindset: never tolerate poor development rate

  ---

• Mindset: appreciate steadfast development rate as core priority

  ---

• Simple: have to break down project into components and see how the components fit together *before* start

How can I do it all better:

• Understand: much of the development success is determined before you even start developing

  ---

• Understand: preparing tasks and contingencies is time well-spent, you lose 10-30x that time on bugs and roadblocks, if you skip it

• There's no point starting the development process, if you don't at least have a general roadmap and contingencies against likely roadblocks

• Took months. Everything was new to me.

• Prevent slowdowns:1

---

• As simple as possible:1

---

• Prioritize:1

---

• Track progress & adapt:1

What went well:

• Learned enough & persistend long enough to complete the project

What went poorly:

• Took months

  ---

• Most of the things a newbie could do wrong: no tasks, no roadmap, no contingencies, no prototype'ing.

  ---

• Just dived right into it and sank for months

Root causes:

• First app, inexperienced.

Next time:

• Next time I am inexperienced at doing a given thing and it's complex, I'll take it much more gradually, many more steps in between point A and point B

How can I do it all better:

• In terms of learning new and complex abilities: at least try to be aware that there are always shoreter and longer ways...it pays to be good at looking for the shorter ones

• There are many types of struggling, some of them are much more effective at yielding improvement, than others

  ---

• It pays to be skilled at looking for those types that are most effective

  ---

• In fact, it pays even more to have a framework for doing so, so that you find the best types of struggling, that give the best learning and growthh rates for you as a software developer