Starting @ Launch School: June 2020

I’m writing this brief note as a personal introduction from me to you. TLDR: I’m a Denver-based market researcher turned software engineering student & aspiring web developer. Nice to meet you.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

I type this introduction to you from my desk, located in the Hale neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. Scattered around on this glossy Ikea-esque desk are monitors, whiteboards, notecards, notebooks, and a collection of coding books checked out from the library right before the world and all of its cultural institutions shut down.

Oh — and a slinky, a few pyrite cubes, and some rubber bands. I highly enjoy desk trinkets.

(This is a desk trinket I’d like) Photo by Christophe Hautier on Unsplash

Since March of 2020, I’ve been slowly and surely learning about computers, software, web development, and programming. In these brief and globally tumultuous few months, I’ve switched from attending a bootcamp in Denver to teaching myself using online and print materials to finally discovering Launch School. I’ve spent a month doing Launch’s prep work and another month going through the first of twelve modules. My plan is to use the next one to three weeks to study for the first assessment, AKA RB109.

Like so many others, I’ve come to software engineering via a non-linear path. I studied linguistics, French, and communication before moving to Hangzhou, China, and teaching English for a year. I returned to Denver and have worked in market research and in research and evaluation for the last four years.

(This is very close to where I live, though I don’t have this view) Photo by Cassie Gallegos on Unsplash

I plan to become a backend developer after completing Launch School. The world of software engineering is so vast and so burgeoning that it does and will continue to prompt revolutionary breakthroughs in a wide range of human endeavors. I would love to be a part of that. I’m deeply interested in human interaction, equity, sustainability, futurism, urban planning, walkability, maps, data visualization, linguistics, natural language processing, storytelling with data, virtual reality, augmented reality, and IoT.

I plan to use this platform to document my process in Launch School and the process of becoming a web developer during the time of COVID-19. As I continue through the program, I’ll add to this online journal, whether technical or philosophical in nature:

1. Epiphanies and realizations
2. Challenges and successes
3. Enticing tidbits and miscellany

Please feel free to reach out if you are going through this process yourself, if you have any questions from one beginner to another, or if you have any words of wisdom you’d like to share.

Thank you for reading this informal introduction. I look forward to continuing on the slow and steady path of mastery, and I hope you’ll pop in again. I also hope you and your loved ones and your communities are staying safe during the global pandemic and international civil rights movement.

Warmly,

Austin