When I was first learning the board game Go, I bought and read a few introductory books. They taught me the rules, and some basic strategy. I knew that there was a fun game there. But I just wasn’t seeing it.
When it came time to play my own games, I was confused and stressed out. There were 361 possible moves I could make, but which of those was the best one? Not even that, which of those were even acceptable? Using the information I got from the first books, I could maybe narrow decent moves down to about a hundred, but I still had trouble knowing where to start, and what to do. And it just wasn’t fun to me.
I felt like I couldn’t even play the game unless I studied everything first.
So, on a friend’s recommendation, I picked up another book. The book was called “The Second Book of Go.” It had short chapters, each on a specific topic that beginners tend to struggle with. And it gave me some processes I could follow, so I could know that I wasn’t making insane moves.
It taught me the reason behind crazy-looking strategies, and it taught me tricks to make better decisions and evaluate my own moves. And it showed me that even wrong moves had value.
When I started playing again, I began to have fun.
As long as I’ve written here, I’ve heard from people learning Rails that were in the same boat as I was learning Go. They heard it was supposed to be fun, but it was actually just frustrating. They didn’t know where to start. The things they learned didn’t stick with them. They couldn’t spend time learning consistently enough to grow as a Rails developer. Most of all, they were overwhelmed, because the space of possibilities in front of them seemed too big.
If this sounds familiar, I wrote a book for you. It’s meant to bring the joy of Ruby and Rails to those who were about to give up. To show that with a little structure, a little practice, and a little curiosity, you can write your own Rails applications, and have fun doing it.
It’s available for pre-sale, starting today. It’s 25% off until it’s finished. And when you buy it, you’ll get today’s draft immediately, and updates to it from here on out.
I hope you enjoy it.