I like the idea of a regimented schedule. You are right, as soon as I begin to see progress and things start rolling it instantly becomes MUCH more fun.
For me, reading/watching inspiring stories helps briefly, but the initial impact quickly wears off.
I don't think so. I spent around 2 weeks going through a serious of 10 or so lessons just to get familiar with the syntax and basic elements. I'm interested in web applications so the sooner I can begin building the basics the better (from a motivational and practical standpoint).
There are a ton of great Rails resources out there for beginners you don't need to know alot of Ruby to get started. I do think it will be worthwhile to revisit Ruby outside of the context of Rails after I make some progress and if I think it is necessary for what I am trying to do.
Some really great stuff here. Thanks for your feedback. I like the idea of starting small - I can imagine getting ahead of myself and setting unrealistic expectations. Also, the idea of overlapping your skills is great. It would definitely help to see my progress in another area to remind me what I can do!
I really like the idea of having 2 projects to work on. Also agree about reaching out to people so that you dont end up getting bogged down with areas outside of the "core" of your project/learning process.
This is a great point. I think goals can be an incredibly powerful motivator and can help with accountability - especially when shared.
I have been setting weekly goals (get through x amout of lessons and complete x amount of excercises). Daily goals are tougher due to work and an unpredictable schedule but so far for me it has been to do something RoR related each day.
I need to think more about long term, but in general I want to be able to prototype and have built a simple web app within 6 months.
I wonder how many features facebook can continue to add before things get too cumbersome... I understand the vision and the fact that they want to address all of their users' needs. But trying to integrate everything that other social networking sites do really well seems like overkill.
Personal blogs like Fred Wilson's and Mark Suster's are less hype driven and more content driven. A TON of their content is geared towards providing the startup community and aspiring entrepreneurs with valuable information. Their content is derived from their personal experiences - the companies they invest in, advise and have created themselves - and this is why reading them is valuable. They never claim to be or are never perceived to be neutral news sources.
Blogs like TechCrunch and GigaOm are more journalistic in nature - their goals and the public's perception of them is as a news source. There are certain responsibilities and standards that need to be upheld when you are a source of news that don't apply to personal blogs.
For privately held companies there is no equivalent afaik.
Especially critical is the time of transition from a privately held company to a public one (IPO). And that's good stuff. The basic idea is that everybody has access to all the information at the same time.
The big issue would be if a blog or some other communication wrote 'you should buy this stock' knowing it is a lemon and unloading by someone with a hand in the creation of the blog.
That's why it is good practice to fully disclose that you have a position in the companies you write about, because if you do not it may be that afterwards, long after you thought it mattered you could still be hit with a violation depending on what he stock did after you published.
I think it's been featured on alot of cooking shows. They launched at the right time as demand was on the upswing and Greek yogurt was getting popular.
I think it will be interesting to watch. I also think there is value in being so specific in what they offer: they only make Greek yogurt. As a result, they don't have trouble branding themselves as "authentic".
Companies like Dannon who make all sorts of dairy products don't have this advantage.
For me, reading/watching inspiring stories helps briefly, but the initial impact quickly wears off.