Posts

Connecting the Dopamine Burnout Dots

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  Lately, I've been in a slump; in a valley of malaise so to speak, as applied to aggressively moving forward toward my goal of learning Python and related other coding technologies ( Old Man Learns to Code alas no more? --with respect to Py?, HTML?, CSS?, JS?, BAT scripting?, AHK?, PKM/Obsidian?, more? ). Why the slump? ⏫ ⏺ ⏬       ◀     ▶1    ▶2     THIS LINE IS UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION (ignore for now) Have I hit "total burnout"? What is burnout? What are its causes? It turns out that loss over time of o ne's sense of excitement, of thrilled  anticipation  and of strong motivation to advance is quite natural. It's simply that expectation of surprise is no longer there. And therefore there are no large dopamine kicks to entice one to rush forward to the next, possibly rewarding , next rung on the learning curve.  Instead, a dread may emerge. A loss of confidence may develop of not being able to master the nex...

A Time Out From Real Coding

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It feels as if it was longer, but apparently I needed some time out from actual coding for diversion,  reflection  and introspection.  ( More here ) and ( here ) [Jump to latest thoughts-- click here ] I found every excuse for not doing OOP project #2 which is the abbreviation expansion class and its "objects". Was it nothing more than falling into a bunch of easy-dopamine traps ? Did I get stuck in the identity-politics debates? Did I let 'notifications' on my smart phone distract me? Perhaps. Or maybe I needed to rewire my mental models in the background (the subconscious) of how OOP objects should be viewed ? So now I have a new view of what the definitions should be for what is a "class"? For  what is an  "object",  "attributes", "methods", the init method and so on; all to be found ( HERE = an earlier OML2code post) Given that, I've re-designed the plan for my expander cookie-cutter (aka 'class') p...

Stretch and Sketch Before You Leap (into coding)

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" Look before you leap " is a common alliterative warning ( WaZit? ) about diving blindfolded into a strange pool or any other unmapped situation (e.g., a coding project). Yet so many beginner programmers try hammer some code onto a blank page, thinking that doing it from " scratch " is the best way. They're wrong. It's the worst way. See gQAB ::: Plan before you run (Note: QAB stands for Query ABout. The "g" prefix means via google) See also:  Reasons You Should Plan Your Python Code Before You Write It by dts) No general goes into battle without first having mapped out the terrain, without first having studied the enemy and having analyzed the various obstacles that may foil the campaign (e.g., will the Russian winter defeat Napoleon's / Hitler's troops?). So how does that apply to a new coding project? One Python Vlogger ( Wu --here: How to build understandable programs ) gives an example based of designing a Tic-Tac-Toe game to be pl...

Going Batsh*t over BAT files

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I don't know why I didn't pay much attention to BAT / CMD commands in the past . Recently though, I've bee using them more and more for all sorts of tasks, especially when accessing files with long path names. My current "Going Bats" test file [.. when starting this post] is this: [Jump to ( here ) for Latest to explore] [Jump to ( here ) for Latest appends >> to this post] @echo off rem This is one way to include a comment. Next 2 lines output CRLF's echo.             <-- causes a line skip, aka print a CRLF echo. echo This text will be printed on the CMD console. "Hello World" echo. echo See Go BAts foleder in Other Sw tab echo. color 1E               <-- causes my console to display as Yellow text on Blue background                                   <-- Se...

My 1st and 2nd OOP class definitions (aka What is an OOP class definition?)

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  WHAT IS OOPS? Wiki =  Object-oriented programming Google =  object oriented programming Reddit =  object oriented programming               =  Somebody please explain classes! YouTube =  object oriented programming in python MIT course =  Object Oriented Programming Wiki =  Object-oriented programming Arjan -- When multiple instances are NOT needed, use module instead!   [ Arjan OOP playlist here ]  [Arjan ::: Keep your Class Small ] The underlying ideas for both my 1st and second OOP projects are explained ( here ). I successfully implemented the loop tracker first and my second project --not yet finshed-- will be the Abbreviation Xpander (class AbbvXpander():) But first, let's discuss some basics:     (1)  What is a "class"?     (2)  What is an "object"?  (The original plan was 'messaging' as explained here ) [Note to self: How to find all locations of c...