Progressing...but still getting stuck

Scott D'Alessandro I'm in the same boat as you. I can read HTML, CSS, jQuery, javascript, SQL and .Net but I struggle with writing in these languages. I feel my brain is just not wired that way, and that's fine I've just grown to work around those flaws.

For me I'm great at taking a template I find (Foundation 4 for example and using their templates) and altering/overhauling them to fit my needs. This is something I continually do for myself to train and for my clients if they need help. Fortunately I have a team of developers under me that I use for programming which is more of the Rails aspect.

My suggestion would be to go to a Community College near you or a live webinar of training to get some 1 on 1 training. Don't get me wrong Treehouse is amazing, but sometimes you need a little more interaction with programming before it clicks...sort of like math.

When I took VB in high-school 12 years ago I hated it my first month because I couldn't make sense of it. All the sudden we had a sub for 2 weeks who taught differently and that's why I'm able to understand .Net the way I do.

Different strokes for different folks as we say it in the Air Force.

Thanks for the input Justin. After work tonight I'm going to attempt to start writing code with a pen and paper to see if that helps make things stick a little more. This is my first time really learning by typing things out, instead of writing things out (like I did in college).

Hopefully I can find a webinar online with live Q/A. Ultimately i am trying to get into a rails development school, one of the 10 week/Semester programs that have been popping up lately. I'm trying to get my hands on Ruby and other programming languages. I have a strong science background, physics, chemistry, etc and can already see how these coding languages are similar to the math used in those subjects (assigning variables, values, etc). It's pretty cool to see and make the connection!

Hopefully a few more days working at this I'll be able to write more things out. Thanks for the input Justin! I appreciate it!

Hi Scott D'Alessandro and Justin Witz

It's perfectly normal to feel a little intimidated by a blank text editor. Most designers and developers start out with a framework like Bootstrap or HTML5 Boilerplate and then modify from there. It's not cheating! :)

The more you code, the easier it will become. If you make projects for yourself and write a little bit of code each day, it will become more normal to you. It's hard for us to remember, but it's a very similar mental process to learning how to write sentences and use a keyboard. Before long, the basics are second nature and you're able to focus on higher level goals. Just keep at it!

Nick Pettit is right! Every week my goal is to design a webpage using a bootstrap (now focused on Foundation 4) and I challenge myself to test certain skills that I've learned in Treehouse. I can say that I feel comfortable doing a lot but still a ton to learn which is one of the things I love about web development, you never stop learning!

It's like doing anything. Music for example. There's a big difference between being a good sight-reader and a good songwriter. One's not necessarily better or easier than the other, they just work the ol' noggin in different ways (though with the same notes and coordination). The tutorials on Treehouse and other books and sites are incredible, and I'm sure classes can be equally as informative, but if you're working towards being a creator I think you have to put the "learning materials" aside and just do it.

Build your own things. Build something you'll actually use after you build it. It's painful most the time, but the trial and error is rewarding because you have to figure out the logic behind the code in order to get the answer.

Google (or Bing?) every question and error. I can only imagine where I'd be without Stackoverflow and this here Forum...

If you get stuck, talk to your friends about it. They might not care or understand it, but just talking about it helps a lot I find.

Thanks! I will definitely be keeping at it. I feel I made a lot of progress within the last 24 hours and am finally staring at a blank text editor and able to start plugging in some pieces of the puzzle.

I'm going to try and create something of my own. Does anyone know if there is a source of simple things that can be created? To be honest I don't even know what I can create besides some of the examples of what was created by ruby such as bleacherreport.com, groupon.com, etc.

What are some smaller things I could create?

Thanks!