How to choose a correct path in Treehouse and get to the point in the shortest time

if you know it already just do the challenges and knock them out. i know most of the stuff i want to learn is later in the track. or you could look at the library and do them separate from the track. they have a fast forward video feature were you can set the play speed to 2X its kind of funny. but if you think there might be something you want to learn about in a section you can use it to skim over it and see if they cover it in detail.

Thanks for sharing!

The main problem I have with all the learning material / sites is that you never get into "working" stuff.

You learn syntax, you learn classes and then you're left in the cold...

When it comes to give a file structure to your project, use a framework or connect to a database and project a backend... You're on your own.

I hope this is not Treehouse's case :)

i have not look for any frame work stuff there are a few db ones i am looking at now so far the first one has not really showed a whole lot other then covering a lot of the sql language and uses of it. there was a section in http://teamtreehouse.com/library/enhancing-a-simple-php-application that talked about file structure and such was not the best in the context of course but as far as what it covers it was not bad i would have liked a little more but it covered the basics.

First: Props on quitting your job and doing something you're more passionate about, that take a lot of bravery, or 12 years of pent up stress.

It looks like you already have some background with programming already, and you would like to get on track more quickly and not waste time.

Some of the easier parts of a track might be too easy for you.

I think first thing you have to do is figure out what part of web programming you want to do.

Front-End Back-End or even Full-Stack

Since you've already done some html5, css, and js, and you were going into Laravel and PHP, it looks like you wanted to go into Full-Stack development (working on the front-end and back-end)?

The next thing I'd have to ask is what do you mean by get to the point? What I mean by that is, you want to get to a point or somewhere in the shortest time, but what is that point? A job or your own company, or being able to freelance?

Once you have those two things cleared up, it honestly doesn't matter which track you choose. Since you were already looking into Laravel and PHP, I would go ahead and take the PHP development track. Another good rule of thumb is do you have any programmer friends who can help you, maybe do some code reviews or recommend good resources. If you do, ask what they use and learn that, because then you have a friend who can help and mentor you and that will definitely make you learn faster.

Next- Read this article: http://blog.freecodecamp.com/2014/11/a-cautionary-tale-of-learning-to-code.html

The blog article basically says, focus, don't jump around and learn a bunch of different frameworks because they're pretty, focus, focus, focus.

Next, Read this article: http://www.vikingcodeschool.com/posts/why-learning-to-code-is-so-damn-hard

This blog article shows you what to expect in the journey ahead. And don't feel stressed about going fast, if you're coding everyday, learning everyday, and working hard you'll get there sooner than you thought.

Finally, you said: "I've built a few little apps using bootstrap and jquery mobile to learn how to code but never finished anything really useful for someone." It doesn't have to be useful for anyone, but make something, and finish it. That's important.

Hope this helps.

TL;DR 1) Clarify where it is you want to go, be very CLEAR 2) Choose a track, any track, and FOCUS 3) Work hard everyday and CODE, CODE, CODE 4) Build something, and FINISH it 5) Be PATIENT with yourself