TEKNOMADE

[Know the basics, and the relationship between languages])

In 20xx when I was a consultant, I got hired for a job for Norway’s state broadcaster — NRK is like the BBC of Norway.

They’d noticed that people were discussing their shows online while watching, and wanted to create a platform for it to happen.

I was interviewed for the assignment, and much to my astonishment, got it.

I was astonished, because I’d been totally clear on the fact that I didn’t know the programming language they were going to make it in — JavaScript.

So as I left home for work on that first day, I was nervous.

Sure, getting paid $130 an hour for learning something new is pretty cool — but it does put some pressure on you to become confident and productive quickly.

Dive right in.

A lot of languages are really similar.

F: It can’t work for me. Some people are just born programmers.

T: Programming is a basic human skill, just like reading, writing and arithmetic. Anyone can learn to program with time and effort.

My 11-year old wanted to make a computer game …​

F: I need to be good at maths / physics

F: I am not smart enough / it’s too hard / Some people are born programmers

F: I have to be a nerd / a gamer

F: I have to be an introvert

F: I have to be young

F: I have to be fluent in English

F: I cannot afford it (tuition)

F: I don’t have the time.

F: I need a better computer

F: I need to learn the "best" programming language to become a developer

Purpose: Build report; have them click the email confirmation link!

Subject: TJJ: IMPORTANT: The Java Journey - Action needed! (You’re almost in!)

Hey first name!

Upon receiving notice that you signed up, I was immediately pleased!

Then I sat down to write you this very personal letter to welcome you to The Java Journey …​

Or not :-) Being a programmer, I obviously automated it. That’s what we programmers do.

(That’s how we create value …​ by freeing up humans to do human-work, while machines do the repetitive tasks.)

Make no mistake though …​ I’m a real life flesh-and-blood, sweat-and-tears, warts-and-worries - person, and if you’d happen to reply to this email, whaddaya know — you’d actually reach me.

Now I’m guessing for some people receiving this email, it’s not your first stab at learning how to code.

If that’s you, and you feel that you’ve failed, or that you’re confused and overwhelmed, the first thing I want to mention is that it’s not your fault. There’s a lot of information out there, and it can be confusing. Many times the information overload keeps you from success. It’s okay!

If you’ve been concerned in the past that you just can’t succeed with programming, I want to put those fears to rest. You can do this. You just need the right person to explain it to you.

The universities and colleges want you to think you need an expensive education to be successful. I’m here to tell you they’re wrong. They have their own reasons for wanting you to think that, but it’s not true.

So that’s what we’re here for. I know you have a dream to change the world and make an impact, and during the next few days I want to show you how to make that happen.

Do you agree with this statement: "Everything is easy when you know how"?

Yes?

Well, I have a goal for you …​

My goal for you is that you’ll see HOW PROGRAMMING IS EASY, and as such, how it can help you reach your goals.

I have THREE SECRETS to help us accomplish that goal, and I will share those with you in the next few days.

Only when you click that link will I be able to send you my very best and FREE training, and help you on your journey.

If you don’t, I won’t be able to help you learn programming the fun way, and I’ll be a sad duck. And I don’t want to be a sad duck. I want to be a happy duck!

So how do you know if clicking the link is a Good Idea For You ™ ?

YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT POINT IN THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM AND SHOULD CLICK THE LINK NOW IF ANY ONE OF THESE RING TRUE TO YOU:

Do you recognize yourself in any of those descriptions? Then by all means, be my guest and click the link now.

 — AND YES THIS IS FOR YOU IF:

WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO CLICK THE LINK?

Here’s the deal: I will give you a lot of great stuff to help you become a (better) programmer.

I also have stuff I sell.

So every now and then, I will make you an offer to buy something.

My evil plan is that you’ll like the free stuff so much you’ll think to yourself:

Wow, if he’s giving THIS away, just imagine what’s in the products he’s selling …​!

So that’s the deal.

Fair enough?

HERE’S WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU CLICK THAT LINK

In the same instant that your email is confirmed, you’ll automagically be logged in to The Java Journey Member’s portal.

There, you’ll be greeted with a complimentary (yes, FREE) digital course that just might help you open up to what’s really possible for you.

It’s where we start the work …​ on you …​ to blast some blocks you might be having on programming out of the waters.

So click the link to get cracking now:

Then tomorrow, I’ll tell you the somewhat embarrassing story of how I totally screwed up one of my first programming jobs, and the good that thankfully followed from that screw-up …​

The day after tomorrow, we’ll dive into the number one thing that holds a lot of people back from becoming programmers …​

And the day after that, I’ll let you in on the secret of how my 9-year-old son learned the basics of programming and created his first computer game in a few hours :-)

Best regards, Sten

P.S. Click [this link] to start your journey right now. If at some stage later you want to unsubscribe, there is a link to do exactly that in all the emails I send you.

P.P.S. If you have a second, I’d love to know:

Why did you come to The Java Journey today? …​

What can we do to help you solve your biggest problem right now?

Purpose: To help them see that this new opportunity will give them their greatest desires, increase their status, and help them achieve their goals.

How: Share origin story. Build report by sharing weakness; show them that I was once where they are, and that I screwed up, and that all that struggle led to the I.F.L. Method that I will teach them.

Subject: How could I screw this up so badly? (As promised …​)

first_name

I remember this as if it were yesterday, January 15th, 2006:

I recall that it was snowing really heavy so heavy in fact, the tram I usually took to work was horribly late …​

_Click here to watch the rest of this story …​ https://thejavacourse.com/courses/B556Q28FL9QM8/modules/B556QBTV9RMKG/lessons/B5BTEYXY0HYBK

My neck was wrapped up in this scarf- looking thing that reminded me of something you’d see in a Dr. Seuss book, and I was trying to hide behind it!

I had just kissed my fiancée, Tonje, who was pregnant with our first child, goodbye

So here I was, downtown Oslo, Norway, on the no 11 tram to my first "real" job as a programmer

And, like the weather, I felt frozen inside, half dead, and you’ll see why soon…​

_Click here to watch the rest of this story …​ https://thejavacourse.com/courses/B556Q28FL9QM8/modules/B556QBTV9RMKG/lessons/B5BTEYXY0HYBK

It had recently dawned on me that I was going nowhere in my job and that it simply wasn’t going to get any better unless I took action and I did, just like you’re doing now…​

Despite knowing this, I guess I didn’t FEEL it deep enough, as I needed to experience one really embarrassing, horrific event to really get me on the path to becoming a successful programmer…​

Feeling freezing cold and utterly alone, I pulled out my entry card, swiped it at the front door to office building, pulled the door open, and entered into the corridor at work …​.

And then my worst fear came true:

No sooner had I walked in, my boss called me into his office

He had this stern look on his face, like he was concerned

I felt my stomach turning

I KNEW what was coming next

_Click here to watch the rest of this story …​ https://thejavacourse.com/courses/B556Q28FL9QM8/modules/B556QBTV9RMKG/lessons/B5BTEYXY0HYBK

Best regards, Sten

P.S. If you’re told to log in, then you can get a magic link to log in by going to https://thejavacourse.com/password-reset

P.P.S. The embarrassing story starts about 2:15 into the video.

Secret 1: Purpose: Qualify myself, then break and rebuild their belief pattern around The Vehicle (programming, Java in particular)

Subject: Is THIS ONE holding you back?

Yesterday I told you the rather embarrassing story of how I messed up one of my first programming jobs.

Today, let’s switch gears and look at how not to screw things up :-)

You see, I fell in love with programming as a kid in the 1980s.

Despite the egg I got on my face in the job I told you about yesterday, that was a long time ago …​

PROGRAMMING is so much FUN that I’ve now spent the last 20 years developing software to solve problems for some of the best known companies in my home country of Norway.

I’ve been an A-level partner at one of the top consulting agencies in Norway, sitting on the board for several years, and I’ve been lucky enough to hire some of the best programmers I know of to come and work for us.

I’m not telling you this to honk my own horn, but for a reason …​ You see …​

In one particular way, I think I was very lucky to learn programming in the 80’s.

The reason was: I had NO choices.

My dad bought me a computer, a Sharp MZ-721 (which was the cool one, because you could load your programs from a cassette.)

It had ONE programming language, called BASIC.

Thus, deciding what to learn was easy: I learned BASIC.

Today, there are SO many languages to choose from …​

Do you learn Python, or Java, or C++, or Clojure, or PHP, or maybe even C? What about JavaScript? TypeScript?

What frameworks do you need to learn? React? Angular? Vue.js? Spring? Mono? Django? Laravel? Rails?

The lists are endless.

Overwhelm and confusion ensues.

By the pure-luck cosmic coincidence of being born in the 1970s and learning this in the 1980s, I dodged the single biggest obstacle I see for a lot of people learning to program today (even though some of them are born in the 1950s and 1960s :-) …​

I call it "The Secret Of ONE".

To learn programming, you need to focus on ONE thing at a time …​

ONE language!

And probably, for a while:

ONE teacher …​

Then, LATER, when you MASTER your language, you can progress and learn more languages!

I’ve made a living programming C++, Java, Perl, PHP, Clojure, JavaScript, and probably some more I can’t remember right off the bat

It all started with The One.

All the time I see people asking:

"What is the best language to learn?"

All the languages listed above (except for Clojure), are in the same "family" of programming-languages.

They are very much alike, and they all have the same building blocks.

Which makes it very confusing to try to learn more of them at once …​ you’ll get the different details all mixed up …​

There isn’t a "best language", nor a "best language to learn first" …​

The important thing is that you PICK ONE, and stick with it for a while.

And if all you know right now is that you want to learn programming, then I have a suggestion for you:

Pick Java.

Why?

Because:

Why wouldn’t you choose Java?

Well, if you’re doing something very specialized, like statistical number crunching, some languages are more tailored specifically for that. Otherwise, it’s as good as it gets :-)

So if that’s cool with you, I want you to commit right now to learn Java. To stick with it for a while. To stick with it even when the going gets tough.

Say to yourself: For the next six weeks, I’m learning Java.

Say it out loud!

Write it on a piece of paper.

Commit to it.

So that’s SECRET #1: Pick ONE language to learn, and stick with it for a while.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you the story of how my 9-year old used the power of one to learn the basics he needed to create the game of Pong :-)

Secret 2: Purpose: Break and rebuild their belief pattern about Internal Beliefs (It’s too hard for ME)

F: I have to know an endless amount of things to become a proficient programmer …​ Languages, frameworks, etc.

T: You have to understand the basics well. You can learn the rest when you need something specific.

Epiphany Story: How My 9-Year Old Son Learned the basics of programming in a few hours :-)

Subject: How my 9-year old created his first computer game in a few hours

A lot of students come into programming thinking it’s very hard.

Fact is, you can learn the basics in a few hours.

Sure, like they say about chess: "it takes an hour to learn, but a lifetime to master."

However, unlike chess, you’re not competing against anyone. Which is good news, because you can start having fun straight away.

Five years ago, my oldest son came to me because he wanted to create a video game. He was 9 at the time.

At nine, you haven’t really developed your ability for abstract thinking. Neither have you heard anything about how hard coding is supposed to be, which makes everything a lot easier for everybody.

So we sat down with something called Scratch — which is a graphical programming website for kids, and we looked at what pieces we had to play with and what they did.

We decided we wanted to make the game of Pong, because it is a very simple game.

We created a ball.

It just sat there. That was very boring.

It needs to move, said my son.

I concurred.

We examined what we knew about the ball.

There were two numbers: one called x, the other y.

We added 1 to x.

The ball jumped the tiniest fraction to the right.

Cool!

There it stood still again.

Not cool.

We added 200 to x.

The ball seemed to move magically from where it was, to somewhere further to the right.

Neat, but not what we wanted.

Continuing like this, experimenting with the pieces, we were able to create the game of Pong in a few hours, and then we played our new game for a few hours.

It’s not that my son now had grasped all the concepts of programming perfectly and was now a master programmer.

Not at all.

The point is, he had understood how to PLAY with programming, to peek and poke around to see what happens …​ to have FUN with it.

And that makes all the difference.

He has made all sorts of weird and wonderful things in the last few years. A couple of years ago, he created a web site where he could control the IKEA Smart Lights in his room …​ setting the colors and turning them on and off through the website.

Then we took a course in JavaScript together, and created the classical game Snake …​

I guess I digress :-) …​

The point I’m trying to make is that you can have a lot of fun with the basics, and you can build upon the basics fast.

You don’t need to be a genius …​ You just need to relax and enjoy it: Slow down to go fast :-)

So that’s SECRET #2: PLAY AND HAVE FUN WITH IT. Don’t take it too seriously. Learning is supposed to be fun!

That’s why kids play all the time …​ to learn about how the world works. And they’d never do it if it wasn’t fun. So, evolution made learning and discovery fun (not like some schools where kids get pre-digested factoids shoveled down their throats, that’s different …​.)

Thankfully, fun is the name of the game.

And tomorrow, I’m going to introduce you to a classical piano player I know, and he’s the key to SECRET #3, so look out for it :-)

Secret 3: Break and rebuild their belief pattern about External Beliefs

F: Need to go to uni / college

T: Learning can happen anywhere. In this game, it’s all about what you can do, not where you learned to do it.

Subject:

So there you go, SECRET #3: It doesn’t matter where your learned programming, the only thing that matters is what you can DO with it!