An investment approach to learning code

Learning to code is more than just picking up the skills needed to land a job developing software or freelancing. It is a way of increasing your worth in the work force and in life in general. You learn to grow and appreciate. This is why you need to approach learning as you would any traditional investment.

TRADITIONAL INVESTMENT (Research)

In a traditional investment environment, you would want to do a bit of research before you even start buying into an investment. Research at its most basic form has about 3 steps.

What type of companies do I want to invest in?

What goals do I want to meet with this investment? (Whether it be long -term or short term.)

Which companies would be inline with those set goals?

Once you have figured that out, the next step is deciding which platform you want use to sell and buy the securities.

CODE EQUIVALENT

Before diving into the world of code, a bit of research has to be done. Programming and the tech industry as a whole are constantly growing. New frameworks, languages, and technologies are always being created. To be a coder is to be a perpetual researcher. You will also have to be on top of what’s new and fresh to stay competitive and not become a relic after only a week ha ha (No, but I’m serious). There are a few questions you need to swirl in your head.

What do i want to be able to do with code?

What languages lend themselves better to my goal?

What learning path do I take? Do i go the self-taught route? Enroll in a boot camp? Or go back to school?

TRADITIONAL INVESTMENT ( Diversification)

People invest because they want a positive return. They want their investment to appreciate and grow. However, due to various market factors this is not always the case. We all know that some times investment don’t grow and instead actually decline. My fellow crypto- traders who got into the Bitcoin mania after the 20K market peak know this all too well. No one, not even the Famed Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet can predict with 100% accuracy when the market will be up or down. To hedge against this risk, our best tool is diversification.

The basic premise of diversification is to spread out investment amounts to different types. This is to protect you if one type of investment is down, the others which we hope are either growing or stable will offset any lose you take. It’s very rare that all your investment if spread out among different securities will all be down at the same time.

this is an egg-celent investment strategy

“Never put all your eggs in one basket”

CODE EQUIVALENT

Lets apply this same technique towards learning code. never have just one method of learning to code. We must diversify! Diversify! And did i mention diversify!?

So lets dive into an example:

Lets take my approach for example, I've recently been accepted into a tech boot-camp. However prior to my acceptance I was enrolled in the Tree House Tech Degree program, and I am STILL enrolled. Why? you might ask, it’s because I want to have greater control over my education and diversification is the way to do it! My Tree house course compliments my boot-camp classes and even reinforced some concepts. I’m being taught similar concept in different ways which for me is helpful. If my boot-camp is ever going to slow ill just jump ahead to a curse in Tree house that I want to dive into. If a tree house course is complicated ill wait for my boot-camp to cover it. Or, ill just dive into a book to see if reading it over over might stomp it into my brain.

The Trifecta Ihave going on is shown below:

1. Books and reading from free online content.
2. Tree-House Tech degree program (online program)
3. In person boot-camp (Code-Squad)

Now this may not work for most people, as most boot-camps are a couple thousand dollars ( I was lucky enough to get into a program that is free). and people nowadays are strapped for time as it is. Even if you cant do everything that I’m doing you can at least implement number 2. get books. There is tons of FREE online content so there is really no excuse.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The point that I am trying to make is to get yourself in a position to optimize your learning capacity. Having multiple sources of learning can never hurt you, and unlike traditional investments, learning code will always appreciate, and grow your value as an individual.

“Multiple ways of learning, really pays dividends!”