Explore curated resources, read interesting stories and challenge yourself to learn new things.
About coding with steph
Vision
I didn't write my first line of code until I was 28 years old. Coding was not something I had been exposed to prior to that moment. 3 years and 1 maternity leave later I decided to take the plunge and start a career in tech. I never looked back - well maybe a few times when I got really stuck and my code didn't run! Code/tech is not magic but it is extremely powerful. Coding at it's core it is a set of instructions - my vision is a world where anyone can use code to build tools and products that improve the lives of the people around us. Tech is too important to be left to a few people.
approach
Learning new things can be daunting, especially in the world of tech - it can feel overwhelming. This website aims to hold your hand in moments of overwhelm. It signposts you to curated resources, encourages you with fun but technical blogs using real world analogies. If there is anything specific you'd like me to cover send me a question below. If I don't know the answer i'm happy to figure it out together.
values
My two rules in life are 'ABC' - 'Always Be Curious' and mistakes are good - they are how we learn. Initially training as a pharmacist I was taught mistakes were unacceptable and could cause harm to patients, which is true, but what this meant in reality was that I spent every waking hour figuring out ways not to make mistakes and being terrified of making a mistake. Growing up in the UK the education system also has this philosophy - don't fail exams, don't get things wrong and don't put your hand up if you don't know the answer.
However..... in the world of tech there is a famous quote from AWS CTO, Werner Vogels "Everything fails all the time". Werner implies an acceptance that failures are inevitable, especially in large complex systems. So, instead of trying to create a perfect, fail-proof system, effort should be made on making systems resilient to failure. The culture in tech is that failures are opportunities to learn, improve and innovate.
I genuinely didn't know this about the world until I was 28, and once I found it out my favorite thing to do has actually been to chase failures. Or as I like to reframe it - ' a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor' Franklin D. Roosevelt. I mean it has been terrifying at times - and sometimes I've thought 'am I mad to think I can do this' usually shortly followed by, 'ok, let me give it a couple of go's'.