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Kotlin: Learning Resources For Beginners

Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D ・ Aug 2 '20

#kotlin #kotlinfyi #beginners #android

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Backstory

Earlier this week, I posted this. After a busy July, I was taking some time off in August, and I wanted to kickstart some learning for three reasons:

• I was introspecting about lifelong learning and I wanted to walk the talk by doing my learning in public.
• My current role (PM) left little time for coding, and I knew that my problem-solving muscles would atrophy without regular use.
• It allowed me to reconnect with my 11yo in meaningful ways as he began his learning journey with Python

#30Days of Kotlin

I wanted to have a plan and a purpose for my learning journey. As I explained in the Kotlin Resources post above, I picked Kotlin for three reasons:

• It's growing in popularity - I'd be learning a useful skill.
• It's the preferred language for Android - I could build for Surface Duo
• We're in 11 Weeks Of Android - so I have great Kotlin training options!

But making a resolution and keeping it are two different things.

I wanted a way to keep myself motivated and organized so I keep moving in my journey. So I'm taking a leaf from my previous #30Days Playbook and doing three things that will help me stay the course. I hope this helps you too if you are learning with me!

1. Setting up a Content Calendar on Airtable.

Here is their setup guide for reference. It lets me create a calendar view (to track what I did, when), a form view (to quickly add new topics or themes for future content as I come across them) and a kanban view (to track progress). I hope to link to a relevant view here when done.

2. Adding visual notes for clarity & recall.

You might know that I am a huge advocate for visual storytelling as a means for improving our own understanding of complex topics, while also helping others recall them later. Sketchnoting is a creative skill that brings joy while also making learning inclusive. So expect to see some #VisualKotlin posts where I try to share my learnings through sketchnotes

3. Leveraging the community for accountability.

Studies have show that you have a 65% chance of reaching a goal if you have an accountability partner. This is why study groups help people prepare better for exams. In my case, I hope Twitter and Dev.TO will be my accountability partners. That means you. I hope that by sharing both my failures and my insights, I can get folks to engage in discussions and keep me invested in moving forward.

Day 2: Update

I'm currently starting my journey by working on the Udacity Kotlin Bootcamp For Programmers and I'm off to get my IDE setup so I an get to the next lesson.

I am also a huge VSCode fan - so while the default expectation is to use the IntelliJ IDE, I might also do some spelunking on what I can do to setup or extend my current VSCode environment for Kotlin. Look for a report on that tomorrow!