"We learn by doing. There is no other way." Some school are great about this.
I think a solid education in the graphic arts or computer science will help you and give you confidence, no matter where life (or technology) takes you. I'm a primarily self-taught web programmer, and, while I've been able to do some solid work, and keep myself employed, I feel like there are holes in my knowledge that a solid education would certainly help with. I know how to work with Ruby, for instance, but I'm not sure why it does some of the things that it does. I can speak the language, but not as fluently as somebody who's studied it and its root languages. Here's an extended metaphor: it's like I'm living in Paris, I can speak French, but I don't really think in French. Is it limiting? Only occasionally -- like when I'm reading really well-written French, or trying to accomplish something complicated -- but it's frustrating then. I can easily be a baker or a bookseller, but I'll never be mayor. Out in the 'real world,' I've tended to learn as much as I need to get the job done. In the educational world, that limitation doesn't exist. It seems well worth the cost to me. On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM, Diana <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's all about balance for me. My CompSci classes gave me a good > foundation - learning the basics like if/else, arrays, debugging, > commenting your code (!!) helps me in everything I do including > XHTML/CSS. The logic even helped my communication skills. But too much > studying and not enough doing is counterproductive. I learned more in a > month of writing a PHP script than I did in six months of studying the > Zend manual. > > I know best the things I broke and had to fix. For example, I know how > to make JQuery compatible with Mootools because I discovered the hard > way that using JQuery on a Joomla site will break Virtuemart and nobody > will be able to buy things on the site. Now I'm investing the time > learning to write classes using Mootools, a combination of study and > practice. I'm sure all of us have our big list - learn by doing . . . . > but not just by doing. > > Not being a designer, I don't know what the "basics" are and I suffer > the repercussions whenever I have to design. Resources like lynda.com > are great but building a bunch of websites while studying would be greater. > > Diana > > > > Mike wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I'm new to the web design world and I figure this a good way to get > > started. My name is mike and I"m new to web design world. > > > > I'm starting school to get a 2nd bachelor's in web design from the art > > institute (1st bba is in marketing) and I was wondering since ya'll > > are in the industry, am I going in the right direction? > > > > I see that everyone has a different background, and i'm curious what > > did everyone study or how did they get to where they are today. > > > > I hate to pay for something and then go nowhere afterwards. > > > > Mike > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- David Humphreys [email protected] http://dbhumphreys.com St. Joe's Choir http://www.myspace.com/stjoeschoir http://stjoeschoir.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
